Journal Article
| The South Tyrol as Occupationscape: Occupation, Landscape, and Ethnicity in a European Border Zone Author: Hudson, Mark J. & Aoyama, Mami & Diab, Mark C. & Aoyama, Hiroshi Published: 2010 |
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| This article attempts the beginnings of an occupational theory of landscape. We propose the concept
of occupationscape, defined as landscapes formed and performed through histories of occupational
behavior. This concept is used to examine the relationships between occupation, landscape and
ethnicity in the South Tyrol border region of northern Italy. After the South Tyrol was ceded to Italy
following the First World War, occupations in this region have been used to negotiate ethnicity
through an idealized contrast between the rural, agricultural lifestyles of the German-speaking and the
more urban, craft- and industry-focused activities of Italian-speaking populations. In this article we
analyze how this contrast has functioned in discourse over the prehistoric Ötzi “Iceman” mummy
discovered in 1991. Museum exhibits and other popular images are used to argue that the occupations
and daily life of the Iceman have become linked with both landscape and with the idea of a broader,
rural occupational heritage. The Iceman occupationscape primarily indexes ethnic German folk
lifestyles yet its inherent focus on occupation foregrounds questions of daily life and social justice that
have the potential to help bridge the modern ethnic divisions of the South Tyrol region.
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Article: Hudson_EO.pdf  | |
