Spremenljive krajine severovzhodne Islandije: vreme, letni časi, svetloba in tema

In the monograph Changing Landscapes of Northeastern Iceland, I focus on some dimensions of the environment that are often overlooked in anthropological research – the weather, seasons, light and darkness. I address questions regarding how these dimensions intersect with the social and cultural aspects of everyday life in the areas of Langanesbyggð and Svalbarðshreppur. I concentrate primarily on practices and perceptions connected to the relations between the people and the landscape. I understand the landscape as a highly changing, rhythmic and moving dimension, not as a seemingly static landscape on the surface of the Earth, but as a landscape that encompasses all the constantly ongoing processes of the surface, vegetation, soil and water, as well as gasses and atmospheric phenomena, human and non-human beings. Since the landscape is constantly changing, it is also inherently temporal, and different temporalities of social practices are expressed through the landscape and within it. I follow the assumption that changing and temporal landscapes co-create the ways and forms of interactions between people and the environment, and that these very interactions are at the same time part of the changing and temporal landscapes.