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1 results

  • SIX - Geology and Biography

  • Richard D. G. Irvine, University of St Andrews, Scotland
  • Book:
    An Anthropology of Deep Time
    Published online:
    04 May 2020
    Print publication:
    28 May 2020, pp 129-152

  • Summary

    Recognising that our maps of deep time are themselves products of the entangled relationship between the biographical and the geological, this chapter takes inspiration from the ‘biographical geology’ of the Scottish stonemason and geologist Hugh Miller. Turning our ethnographic focus to the Orkney Islands, where Miller hunted for fish fossils within the Old Red Sandstone, this chapter considers the ways in which deep time protrudes into the present. In particular, we consider the dynamics of erosion (and the role of concrete defences in holding the line against erosion) and the impact of the discovery of geological resources – particularly oil and uranium – as they shape people’s identity in relation to time and place.