Erin Gibson
University of Northern British Columbia, Anthropology, Department Member
- The University Of Glasgow, Archaeology, Department Memberadd
- noneedit
- I am an anthropological archaeologist from British Columbia, Canada. My PhD research in Archaeology at the University... moreI am an anthropological archaeologist from British Columbia, Canada. My PhD research in Archaeology at the University of Glasgow explored the social aspects of movement in Cyprus – where, why and how people move – while also investigating the material traces of that movement – the roads, paths and places of significance born through that movement. I returned to Canada to undertake a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council postdoc at the University of Northern British Columbia to work with the indigenous Stl’atl’limx people of the Lower Lillooet River Valley (SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow 2011-2013). This research highlighted the relationship among heritage ‘work’, identity and movement. At the same time it illustrated the role that heritage practices may play in decolonising landscape, reclaiming land and identity. From 2013 to 2016 I taught in the Department of Anthropology in the same department.
I have recently completed a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research Fellowship that explored heritage formation and its articulation in a rural village in Cyprus. I used participatory techniques such as PhotoVoice, community mapping and video walks to acknowledge contemporary connections – the ‘unofficial’ heritage – that villagers have to the distant and recent past. This was a pilot project in community-based participatory research. It worked with the village to document local heritage making practices and their role in community identity and notions of ‘home,’ while also exploring the successes and challenges faced in carrying out CBPR in Cyprus.edit
Research Interests:
The phenomenon of rural depopulation is seen in many places around the world as young adults move to urban areas where there is greater access to employment, government services and social activities. In Cyprus rural villages exemplify... more
The phenomenon of rural depopulation is seen in many places around the world as young adults move to urban areas where there is greater access to employment, government services and social activities. In Cyprus rural villages exemplify this pattern of demographic decline. Depopulation creates a cycle of loss that influences community identity and feelings of belonging. In this paper I argue that heritage may play a role in building community resilience in socially and economically marginalised rural areas. I focus on the heritage work of a Cypriot regional primary school – how its teachers and pupils created a new common sense of identity for the school, its pupils and the rural villages that the school serves. This case illustrates how even small heritage initiatives may enliven, strengthen and create new social networks – resources necessary to maintain a sense of place, build and sustain community resilience in rural areas.
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Visual Anthropology, Historical Archaeology, Public Archaeology, Ethnography, Heritage Studies, and 10 moreSocial and Cultural Anthropology, Oral history, Intangible Cultural Heritage (Culture), Cultural power and resistance, Community Based Participatory Research, Primary Education, History and archaeology, Community Forestry, Archaeology of Cyprus, and Oral History
Research Interests:
Roads embody the experiences of those who construct, use and maintain them through time. Using a biographical approach I explore how memory and identity are entangled in the material remains of a wagon road in southwestern British... more
Roads embody the experiences of those who construct, use and maintain them through time. Using a biographical approach I explore how memory and identity are entangled in the material remains of a wagon road in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. First constructed by the Royal Engineers in 1859 to enable miners to reach the Fraser River goldfields, the importance of this road transcends its colonial origins. Entwined in different webs of meaning, the material remains of the wagon road continue to play a role in the lives of people today. In this article I investigate the significance of this wagon road to the indigenous Stl’atl’imx (pronounced Stat-lee-um) people of the lower Lillooet River Valley who aim to preserve it as a part of decolonizing and reclaiming their traditional territory and identity. I also look at the road’s importance to a group of Grade 10 students who experience it as part of a high school excursion that teaches outdoor survival skills alongside lessons about...
Research Interests:
This paper explores the biography of a wagon road located in the First Nations (indigenous) territory of the Stl'atl'imx of the lower Lillooet River Valley in southern British Columbia, Canada. While the road is best known as a... more
This paper explores the biography of a wagon road located in the First Nations (indigenous) territory of the Stl'atl'imx of the lower Lillooet River Valley in southern British Columbia, Canada. While the road is best known as a route to the Fraser Canyon during the Fraser River Gold Rush of 1858, here I investigate its multiple lives. Adopting themes from symmetrical archaeology, I show that the wagon road was not a passive outcome of colonial action but instead shifted in form and meaning as it interacted with the human and non-human world. I draw on archival documents from the Royal Engineers and oral accounts from the Stl'atl'imx of the lower Lillooet River Valley to illustrate how people, places and things were woven into the landscape through bodily engagement with the road. This paper thus highlights the complexity of the colonial encounter and the importance of movement and the materiality of movement (roads) in understanding the diversity of interaction in te...
Research Interests:
This study forms an introduction to the archaeology of movement and interaction—a social approach to Mediterranean landscapes that prioritises the landscape beyond sites. The archaeology of movement and interaction applies systematic... more
This study forms an introduction to the archaeology of movement and interaction—a social approach to Mediterranean landscapes that prioritises the landscape beyond sites. The archaeology of movement and interaction applies systematic survey methods to the material culture of roads and paths. While this research fits within the context of off-site and siteless survey, its focus lies in understanding the social relationships and daily activity of people in the past. In this study, I outline the theoretical background and methodological approach used to survey roads and paths in an attempt to encourage Mediterranean regional survey projects to assess, consider and/or adopt these techniques. The underlying premise is that the material culture of roads and paths embodies the experiences and social relationships in which they were constructed, used and maintained. I draw upon a case study from the high mountains of Cyprus to illustrate the archaeology of movement and interaction and to stimulate further discussion of this topic of research
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The phenomenon of rural depopulation is seen in many places around the world as young adults move to urban areas where there is greater access to employment, government services and social activities. In Cyprus rural villages exemplify... more
The phenomenon of rural depopulation is seen in many places around the world as young adults move to urban areas where there is greater access to employment, government services and social activities. In Cyprus rural villages exemplify this pattern of demographic decline. Depopulation creates a cycle of loss that influences community identity and feelings of belonging. In this paper I argue that heritage may play a role in building community resilience in socially and economically marginalised rural areas. I focus on the heritage work of a Cypriot regional primary school – how its teachers and pupils created a new common sense of identity for the school, its pupils and the rural villages that the school serves. This case illustrates how even small heritage initiatives may enliven, strengthen and create new social networks – resources necessary to maintain a sense of place, build and sustain community resilience in rural areas.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: History and Colonialism
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This report summarises the first field season of interdisciplinary field survey in the northern Troodos mountains in Cyprus. The overall objective of the project is to integrate intensive archaeological and geomorphological survey with a... more
This report summarises the first field season of interdisciplinary field survey in the northern Troodos mountains in Cyprus. The overall objective of the project is to integrate intensive archaeological and geomorphological survey with a range of other analytical techniques, in order to ...
Research Interests:
The British took over administrative control of Cyprus in 1878 and three years later all uncultivated land was converted into State Forest. The removal of people from the forest over the following 60 years had long term social... more
The British took over administrative control of Cyprus in 1878 and three years later all uncultivated land was converted into State Forest. The removal of people from the forest over the following 60 years had long term social impacts—clearance is manifest in the absence of a connection and knowledge of the forest and its past inhabitants.
This paper explores how clearance is resisted in rural Cyprus through the practice and performance of heritage. It is derived from the community-engaged Pathways to Heritage Project that sought to understand the places and practices of significance to the village of Nikitari located on the outskirts of the Adelphi State Forest, Cyprus.
I focus on two stories of resistance. Elder Panayiotis Alexandrou Loppas grew up in the forest and spent his life resisting clearance through visiting his places of significance and performing memory. He reworks the past in order that he and his ancestors are remembered into the future. Teachers and pupils of the Asinou Regional Primary School chose the abandoned village of Asinou as the anchor for a new school identity. Their research transformed this forgotten place into a heritage site while setting the foundations for a new regional identity.
This paper explores how clearance is resisted in rural Cyprus through the practice and performance of heritage. It is derived from the community-engaged Pathways to Heritage Project that sought to understand the places and practices of significance to the village of Nikitari located on the outskirts of the Adelphi State Forest, Cyprus.
I focus on two stories of resistance. Elder Panayiotis Alexandrou Loppas grew up in the forest and spent his life resisting clearance through visiting his places of significance and performing memory. He reworks the past in order that he and his ancestors are remembered into the future. Teachers and pupils of the Asinou Regional Primary School chose the abandoned village of Asinou as the anchor for a new school identity. Their research transformed this forgotten place into a heritage site while setting the foundations for a new regional identity.
Research Interests: Visual Anthropology, Historical Archaeology, Public Archaeology, Ethnography, Heritage Studies, and 8 moreSocial and Cultural Anthropology, Oral history, Intangible Cultural Heritage (Culture), Cultural power and resistance, Community-Based Participatory Research, Primary Education, Community Forestry, and Archaeology of Cyprus
Offering a social approach to landscape through the systematic study of communication routes, this study redresses the balance between previous social, historical and data driven archaeological studies of roads, paths and communication... more
Offering a social approach to landscape through the systematic study of communication routes, this study redresses the balance between previous social, historical and data driven archaeological studies of roads, paths and communication routes, while providing landscape survey ...
The Pathways to Heritage Project asked the question: what is important to you about this place where you live? This Story Map contains some of the rich responses to this question which took the form of stories, places and practices of... more
The Pathways to Heritage Project asked the question: what is important to you about this place where you live? This Story Map contains some of the rich responses to this question which took the form of stories, places and practices of significance. I invite you to explore the interwoven nature of these places, practices, people and land as expressed through this map which embeds photographs, text and video.
The Story Map may be accessed in English or Greek. Closed captioning is available for video content
The Story Map may be accessed in English or Greek. Closed captioning is available for video content
Research Interests:
This article focusses on heritage practices in the tensioned landscape of the Stl'atl'imx (pronounced Stat-lee-um) people of the Lower Lillooet River Valley, British Columbia, Canada. Displaced from their traditional territories and... more
This article focusses on heritage practices in the tensioned landscape of the Stl'atl'imx (pronounced Stat-lee-um) people of the Lower Lillooet River Valley, British Columbia, Canada. Displaced from their traditional territories and cultural traditions through the colonial encounter, they are enacting, challenging and remaking their heritage as part of their long term goal to reclaim their land and return " home ". I draw on three examples of their heritage work: graveyard cleaning, the shifting " official " / " unofficial " heritage of a wagon road, and marshalling of the mountain named Nsvq'ts (pronounced In-SHUCK-ch) in order to illustrate how the past is strategically mobilised in order to substantiate positions in the present. While this paper focusses on heritage in an Indigenous and postcolonial context, I contend that the dynamics of heritage practices outlined here are applicable to all heritage practices.
Research Interests:
This paper explores the biography of a wagon road located in the First Nations (indigenous) territory of the Stl'atl'imx (pronounced Stat-lee-um) of the lower Lillooet River Valley in southern British Columbia, Canada. While the road is... more
This paper explores the biography of a wagon road located in the First Nations (indigenous) territory of the Stl'atl'imx (pronounced Stat-lee-um) of the lower Lillooet River Valley in southern British Columbia, Canada. While the road is best known as a route to the Fraser Canyon during the Fraser River Gold Rush of 1858, here I investigate its multiple lives. Adopting themes from symmetrical archaeology, I show that the wagon road was not a passive outcome of colonial action but instead shifted in form and meaning as it interacted with the human and non-human world. I draw on archival documents from the Royal Engineers and oral accounts from the Stl'atl'imx of the lower Lillooet River Valley to illustrate how people, places and things were woven into the landscape through bodily engagement with the road (Bender 2001b, 76). This paper thus highlights the complexity of the colonial encounter and the importance of movement and the materiality of movement (roads) in understanding the diversity of interaction in tensioned landscapes. Keywords movement / place / contested landscape / object biography / wagon road / postcolonial. Article 2 Movement, power and place: the biography of a wagon road in a contested First Nations
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This study forms an introduction to the archaeology of movement and interaction—a social approach to Mediterranean landscapes that prioritises the landscape beyond sites. The archaeology of movement and interaction applies systematic... more
This study forms an introduction to the archaeology of movement and interaction—a social approach to Mediterranean landscapes that prioritises the landscape beyond sites. The archaeology of movement and interaction applies systematic survey methods to the material culture of roads and paths. While this research fits within the context of off-site and siteless survey, its focus lies in understanding the social relationships and daily activity of people in the past. In this study, I outline the theoretical background and methodological approach used to survey roads and paths in an attempt to encourage Mediterranean regional survey projects to assess, consider and/or adopt these techniques. The underlying premise is that the material culture of roads and paths embodies the experiences and social relationships in which they were constructed, used and maintained. I draw upon a case study from the high mountains of Cyprus
to illustrate the archaeology of movement and interaction and to stimulate further discussion of this topic of research.
to illustrate the archaeology of movement and interaction and to stimulate further discussion of this topic of research.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
These videos were produced through the community-based Pathways to Heritage Project.