ABSTRACT
Within the humanities, recent rethinking of central concepts has taken place in a context influenced by the diverse perspectives of postmodernism. Foundational narratives, including those of science itself, have been under challenge. The challenge needs to be met rather than ignored or dismissed. Rigorous attention to the conditions under which knowledge is produced, and to the cultural or historical context of influential explanations, can only lead to improved understanding. The recent social constructions of culture, nature and landscape are explored. All are shown to have multiple and shifting meanings. They converge with evidence presented in Chapters 2 and 3 in demonstrating the problematic status of key environmental concepts such as wilderness and pristine nature. The use of the landscape concept in prehistoric archaeology is discussed in relation to debates about the European Neolithic. This provides a long-term perspective on several key themes: multiple meanings of landscape; the science/humanities dialectic; the material expression of symbolic behaviour; the prehistory of landscape memory; and the long history of ascribing meaning to the nature/culture dualism.
