The past in the present. Landscape perception, archaeological heritage and marginal farmland in Jæren, south-western Norway

Abstract

This paper examines the background of conflicts in the resource management of a specific type of ‘utmark’ in the agrarian landscape. The historical relationship between empirically experienced ‘utmark’ and the resource management of archaeological heritage and environment surrounding it is analysed. The landscape perceptions of two professional management regimes are used as platforms to gain a wider understanding of worldviews in relation to the ‘utmark’ environment. The landscape orders are based on a landscape cosmology of prehistoric origin, but which modern versions are scaled differently, mirroring changes of worldviews. One management on the other superimposes an extreme dissonance of inferiority between contradictive landscapes aesthetics.