Introduction: The life of lines, dwelling and growing

This chapter presents anthropological and philosophical perspectives on Tim Ingold’s understanding of life as constantly immersed and involved in dynamic movement, engagement, and exploration. One of the defining aspects of Ingold’s work is his rejection of the separation of the social and the biological in the conceptualisation of human beings and other organisms. The chapter also presents Tim Ingold’s emphasis on a dwelling perspective and the related focus on temporal rhythms that create living spaces, buildings, and landscapes, i.e., the dynamic involvement of human beings in the world, and with the materials and forces that constitute it. Anthropology was successively dominated by the theoretical frameworks of neofunctionalism, cultural ecology, and neo-Marxism, which all conceptualised the relationship between ecological and social relationships in different ways. The interest of the archaeologist is directed at understanding the stories that have created and continue to create the landscape.