On the Edges: Boundaries as places
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 16/02/2019

Boundaries are transitory and ever-changing locales where interactions between people, places, and their associated routines happen. Those interactions are key in the understanding and perception of space by the people who built it and lived it, making the space they occupied a patchwork of overlapping places in relation to each other. As places constitute a central part of the human experience since they are a synthesis of physical space, memories, feelings, and lived experiences, looking into the nexus of places through their boundaries is a way to better understand people through their use of space. Mapping boundaries therefore consist of reconstructing the place-making process within a definite geographical space. Place making is central in the search for boundaries since they may very well be immaterial or faintly materially defined. In effect, because places are made of routine, time, and memory, the actions performed in places through time tend to define their limits even though it is no straightforward process. The proximity between actions or the superimposition of activities in a same geographical space transform places through their use and modify what a place is according to the person experiencing it. In this paper, the exploration of boundaries takes place in a longhouse from the Maritime archaic of North Eastern Canada. 

Laurence Ferland (Universite Laval)