Paper short abstract:

By understanding how plants and people engaged in the past through archaeological research, we can challenge our contemporary relationships with the vegetal world. A consideration of 'plantiness' questions plant passivity and acknowledges how human becoming has been shaped by plants and by nature.

Paper long abstract:

As we face the challenges of human-induced climate change, we are forced to re-evaluate our relationships with nature. Modern practices of rewilding seek to return landscapes to their ‘pre-human’ state. Yet, many ecologies throughout the world have thrived because of human engagement. The removal of humans from nature has led to a wide-scale climactic crisis; how does removing ourselves further help in those processes of ‘rewilding’? How can we re-situate ourselves in nature and coexist with surrounding environments? In my research, I argue for a more-than-human approach to understanding past plant-human relationships to challenge the notion that humans have always separated themselves from nature. My research focuses on the theory of ‘plantiness’, which highlights the reciprocal nature of plant-human relationships where plants and people have formed negotiated relationships across extensive time-scales. Expanded from previous work, plantiness questions plant passivity and seeks to understand how plants have influenced human becoming. Plants should be viewed not as people, animals, or things, but as plants; they should be interpreted both for what they are and what they represent. In this paper, I will explore plant-human relationships in the Neolithic (4000-2500 BC) of eastern England, specifically focusing on the Fens – an extensive, dynamic coastal plain. How were Neolithic people engaging with and managing their surrounding environments? How did such relationships influence people? By demonstrating how plant-human relationships are contextualised archaeologically, we can challenge the separation of humans and nature. Plantiness provides a lens through which to study both contemporary and previous nature-human relationships.