From Rackham to REVEALS: reflections on palaeoecological approaches to woodland and trees

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dc.contributor.authorRicher, Suzi
dc.contributor.authorGearey, Benjamin R.
dc.contributor.funderQuaternary Research Association
dc.date.accessioned2018-07-30T12:30:34Z
dc.date.available2018-07-30T12:30:34Z
dc.date.issued2018-01-01
dc.description.abstractIn this paper we reflect on aspects of palaeoecological approaches to understanding past woodland environments. With increasing requirements for interdisciplinarity in research, and an increase in popular interest in the 'natural environment' such as 'new nature writing', we suggest that palaeoecology is potentially well situated to engage with other audiences and disciplines, and inform wider debates. However, in order to achieve this, we tentatively suggest that palaeoecology should be self-reflexive and examine how current methods, terminology and underlying theoretical perspectives inform (and inhibit) our practice. Using insights from Oliver Rackham's influential woodland studies as focal points, we examine selected aspects of method and theory in palaeoecology and suggest an approach to developing a praxis of woodland palaeoecology. In practical terms, this (1) incorporates other information and alternative perspectives, and is willing to question its methods and ways of thinking, (2) takes account of past and present, differences in the perceptions of the environment, (3) looks to build enriched accounts without privileging one perspective/set of 'data' over another by 'flattening out' knowledge hierarchies, potentially making the discipline more flexible in its outlook and applicability. A short case study from Shrawley Woods, Worcestershire, UK, illustrates the approach and includes the first example of historical documents and oral history accounts being used in the construction of a pollen diagram.en
dc.description.sponsorshipQuaternary Research Association (Quaternary Research Fund)en
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden
dc.description.versionPublished Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationRicher, S. and Gearey, B. (2018) 'From Rackham to REVEALS: reflections on palaeoecological approaches to woodland and trees', Environmental Archaeology, 23(3), pp. 286-297. doi: 10.1080/14614103.2017.1283765en
dc.identifier.doi10.1080/14614103.2017.1283765
dc.identifier.endpage297
dc.identifier.issn1461-4103
dc.identifier.issued3
dc.identifier.journaltitleEnvironmental Archaeologyen
dc.identifier.startpage286
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/6538
dc.identifier.volume23
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherTaylor & Francis (Routledge)en
dc.relation.urihttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14614103.2017.1283765
dc.rights© 2017, the Authors. Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any wayen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.subjectPalaeoecologyen
dc.subjectArchaeologyen
dc.subjectWoodlanden
dc.subjectTheoryen
dc.subjectMethoden
dc.subjectOliver Rackhamen
dc.subject~Archaeology - Journal Articles~en
dc.titleFrom Rackham to REVEALS: reflections on palaeoecological approaches to woodland and treesen
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)en
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