A 02
Cultural Entanglements in the Lower Guadalquivir – Interacting ResourceCultures and Socio-Cultural Change in the South of the Iberian Peninsula
Academic Disciplines
Prehistory and Early History
Ethnology
Project Investigators
PhD students and Postdocs
The characterisation of resource cultures and a synthesising overall view of long-term socio-cultural developments in connection with the use of resources in the south of the Iberian Peninsula are the focus of this project. Two case studies from different epochs pursue a cultural anthropological approach. Closely linked archaeological and ethnological research on the social, economic and cultural implications of the encounter of different ideas, practices and human/thing relationships in dealing with resources on the lower Guadalquivir, also taking into account ResourceComplexes, are comparatively examined. The analysis of two ResourceCultures that have emerged from cultural interdependencies is intended to shed light on various socio-cultural dynamics associated with resource use. The comparison of such a constellation across epochs should contribute to a better understanding of the socio-cultural dynamics associated with the processes described and support the development of a model. The aim of the research is to identify, on the one hand, what is characteristic of the respective resource cultures and, on the other hand, what readiness for change or cultural resilience existed.
As during the second phase of funding, research is conceived in an interdisciplinary archaeological-ethnological way by comparing one example of interacting ResourceCultures from prehistory and one example from modern times. In the case of prehistory, the influences of Phoenician ‘immigrants’, who settled on the coasts of the south of the Iberian Peninsula from the 9th/8th century BC onwards, on the regional agropastoral resource culture in the estuary of the Guadalquivir, which grew out of Bronze Age tradition, are to be analysed. They were clearly more oriented towards the exploitation of raw materials (especially metals) and the production of agricultural products for supra-regional exchange, with the background of profit maximisation. The ethnological case study is dedicated to the connection between the ResourceCulture in western Andalusia, which was already investigated during the second phase of funding and was mainly characterised by agriculture and cattle breeding, and the influences of British settlers migrating because of the activities of British mining companies especially in the province of Huelva, which began at the end of the 19th century. Since for the Phoenicians, too, the exploitation of these large raw material deposits was one of the most important factors for their immigration, there is a direct correlation between the working areas. The aim of the project is to use the SFB 1070's concept of resources to gain insights for a broader understanding of what promotes or limits the processes of imitation, appropriation and integration or prevents homogenisation in relation to resources from the analysis of cultural interconnections on the one hand and the comparison of resource-related processes of change in distinctly different periods on the other.