12 - The Social Representation of Space: Dimensioning the Cosmological and the Quotidian

Abstract

This chapter reviews the social representation of space in archaeology. A concept of space must be understood within a social and cultural context. Space is a social category defined alternatively within different social and historical contexts. Thus, space, as one of the most immediate dimensions of order as perceived and conceived, must play a critical role in the self-definition of society and the meaning it assigns to an order of physical nature. The increased capacity of certain societies for conceptual (in the sense of the formalization and systematization of representational schemes) and material production entails not only an increasing capacity for spatial organization but also an increasing capacity for creating space. The study of certain facets of urban organization as a representational field can provide information on the self-definition of society within various historical contexts. Such a study can also help to disclose the relationship that is understood to exist between the social and the cosmological order within such contexts.