Placemaking and cosmology in Tsimshian rock art

一个完全对称的火山锥从平原上升起；一个洞穴，墙上有红色的手的剪影；森林中央的一块孤零零的巨石。风景中的地方可以隐藏在普通的视线之外，也可以显眼地看到，但它们通常有一个共同点，那就是它们对居住在它们周围的人有特殊的意义。“场所营造”的概念（弗莱明2007）意味着人类空间中的场所是有意构建的。地方变得有意义是因为人们在那里分享经验。与土地的密切关系是尖山人世界观的一个组成部分，他们的领土位于北美北部海岸。尖山境内的重要地点以象形文字和岩画（岩石艺术）为标志，其中许多被记录为尖山口头传统中的特定事件。象形文字和岩画是来自遥远或最近过去的个人见证，这一事实唤起了一种时间深度和继承感。然而，这些概念在考古学和人类学领域，特别是在岩石艺术研究中被低估了。在当前的岩石艺术研究中，有必要引入本土视角。从历史上看，土著社区和考古学家之间的关系一直很紧张。然而，英属哥伦比亚的土著群体，如尖山人，对考古学和岩石艺术有着浓厚的兴趣。这个项目提供了一种新颖的方法，让人们通过留下一些自己的东西来拥抱周围的环境，融入他们的世界观。因此，这个项目的成果也为我的博士研究提供了新的视角。我们永远不能问那些在法国和西班牙的深洞墙壁上作画的人，为什么他们选择这些地下的地方留下标记。然而，我们可以考虑当代土著人民在选择艺术和仪式地点时所采用的学术方法，并利用关于这一主题的口头和书面文献档案。本计划旨在透过在岩画地点发展先进的数码记录、三维建模及地理资讯系统（GIS），加深对尖山地方及景观的认识。重要的是，这些技术的知识将与尖山社区分享，使他们能够为后代保存这些非凡的标记。将向土著社区提供不同岩石艺术地点的互动地图。如果你点击一个网站，地图将显示其意义和口头传统，使用安德鲁马丁代尔建立的数字平台：尖沙咀考古空间档案馆。这为与土著社区讨论岩石艺术的意义和背景打开了大门。尖山人仍然有很强的口述传统，可以向社区询问与当地有关的故事。保护和保存这些地方对土著社区至关重要。这个项目的结果将是对尖山人的地理位置、景观和历史有更丰富的了解。这个项目最重要的成果之一是，它将通过分享我们获得的知识来加强土著社区、科学界和公众之间的关系。考古学以一种非凡的方式将人们聚集在一起，欣赏过去的美景。与此同时，关注土著历史的考古学必须考虑到殖民主义的持续影响；该项目旨在承认土著人民是其物质遗产的主要学者，并提供工具使他们能够管理遗产资源。这样我们就能真正地弥合过去和现在之间的鸿沟。

A perfectly symmetrical volcanic cone rising up from the plains; a cave with silhouettes of red hands covering a wall; a lone boulder in the middle of the forest. Places in the landscape can be hidden from plain sight or prominently visible, but what they often have in common is that they have special meaning to the people that dwell around them. The notion of "placemaking" (Fleming 2007) entails that places in human space are intentionally constructed. Places become meaningful because people share experiences at them. A close relationship with the land is an integral part of the worldview of Tsimshian people, whose territory is on the northern coast of North America. Key places in Tsimshian territory are marked by pictographs and petroglyphs (rock art), many of which are recorded as specific events in Tsimshianic oral tradition. The fact that pictographs and petroglyphs are personal testimonies from a remote or recent past invokes a sense of time depth and inheritance. However, these notions have been undervalued in the fields of archaeology and anthropology, especially in rock art research. There is a need for introducing Indigenous perspectives on placemaking into current rock art research. Historically there have been fraught relationships between Indigenous communities and archaeologists. Indigenous groups in British Colombia such as the Tsimshian however, have a keen interest in archaeology and rock art in particular. The proposed project offers a novel approach into how people embrace their surroundings into their worldview by leaving behind something of themselves. With this, the outcomes from this project also provides new perspectives to my PhD research. We can never ask the people who painted the walls of deep caves in France and Spain why they chose these subterranean places to leave behind markings. We can however consider the scholarship by which contemporary Indigenous people deal with their choices of selecting locations for art and ritual, and draw on the oral and written documentary archives on this subject.This project seeks to advance the understanding of Tsimshian places and landscapes by developing advanced methods of digital recording, 3D modelling and Geographical Information System (GIS ) at rock art locations. Importantly, the knowledge of these techniques will be shared with the Tsimshian community so that they can preserve the remarkable markings for future generations. The Indigenous community will be provided with an interactive map of the different rock art sites. If you click on a site, the map will display its meaning and oral traditions, using a digital platform constructed by Andrew Martindale: the Tsimshian Archaeological Spatial Archive. This opens the door to a discourse with Indigenous communities about the meaning and context of the rock art. A strong oral tradition still exists among the Tsimshian providing the possibility to ask communities about the stories that are connected to places. It is of utter importance to Indigenous communities that these places are protected and conserved. The result of this project will be a richer understanding of the locations, landscapes, and histories of the Tsimshian people. One of the most important outcomes of this project is that it will strengthen the relationships between Indigenous communities, the scientific community and the public by sharing our gained knowledge. Archaeology has a remarkable way of bringing people together to enjoy the beauties of the past. At the same time, archaeology focused on Indigenous history must engage with the ongoing effects of colonialism; this project seeks to recognize Indigenous people as the primary scholars of their material heritage and provide tools to allow them to manage heritage resources. This way we really can bridge the gap between the past and the present.