Paper short abstract:

Based on ethnography of the Totonac (Mexico), this paper discusses the anthropological uses of "landscape", contrasting the everyday environment (surroundings, lifescape, taskscape) from aesthetic and conservationist conceptions. The notions actually refer to different though interrelated realities.

Paper long abstract:

The term "landscape" is often used in a very general sense and with different implicit meanings in diverse fields of social science. This is also the case in anthropology, whether the interest focuses on the study of space in particular or on ecological representations in general. Yet, if we accept a strict definition of the term, most societies in the world do no conceive nor perceive their surroundings as "landscape" in the aesthetical sense of the word. Rather, in many societies such a "vision paysagère" (Roger 1997) is often a recent result of the interaction between local communities and international dynamics related to the phenomenon of extending patrimonialisation of the environment (Biosphere reservations, ecotourism, World Heritage programs, etc).

Based on my fieldwork in the Totonac region in central Eastern Mexico, this presentation will reflect on the interrelations between taskscape, political landscape and lifescape and suggests under which conditions the emergence of a scenic or aesthetic perception of the environment may be under way. To do so I will discuss Totonac attitudes towards their surroundings, mainly the affirmation of a special relationship towards wooded areas suggesting aesthetical valuations of these.