| The proposed research offers new approaches to understand ruralpractices within post-medieval and modern Mediterranean landscapes,and the nature and constitution of associated rural communities. Theresearch will broaden rural histories in the Mediterranean by addingan original material and spatial dimension to existing(ethno)historical narratives. It comprises an interdisciplinary andcomparative study of local expressions of changing rural practices.These represent shifts in socio-economic and political relations inthe context of expanding capitalist economies and nation-building. Acombination of archaeological data, archival material and oralhistories will be used in integrated analyses. Building on mydoctoral research (University of Wales, Lampeter, UK; 1997-2002) andpost-doctoral work within the framework of the British AcademyReckitt Travelling Fellowship in Archaeology (University of Glasgow,UK; 2003-2004) studies in Sardinia and Sicily will be extended toincorporate material available from mainland Italy, Greece, southernFrance and Spain. A wealth of archaeological and (ethno)historicalinformation on Sardinia and Sicily is available through previousresearch. For Sicily new data will be collected within the frameworkof an Anglo-Italian collaborative research project, the Archaeologyof the Torcicoda Valley, under the direction of Dr Mark Pluciennik(University of Leicester, UK), Dr Enrico Giannitrapani (Sicily) andmyself. Archival and ethnographic research will be undertakenconcomitantly in Sicily and Rome. Regions elsewhere in theMediterranean will be studied with the help of secondary literatureand archaeological data available in the Netherlands and Britain. Myresearch thus far has shown that the incorporation of archaeologicaland related methods in the study of post-medieval and modern periodspresents complementary perspectives and sources, as yet barelytouched in the Mediterranean. Moreover, the proposed research willcontribute extensively to wider debates on Landscape Archaeologies in the Netherlands. |
