Conclusions

The three case studies in this book (Canyon de Chelly, Coba, and Copacabana) have analyzed cultural landscapes from their temporal beginnings to the present as complex interactions between the natural settings and human interventions. Cultural landscapes are physical as well as intangible in the memories of the people who have shaped and populated them. Memory acts as the essential link between the present, in which it is created, and the past, which it recalls. If cultural landscapes coalesce the past and present in case-specific ways, the question that remains open is: how do they prepare for the future? Can they provide insights and messages in the twenty-first century, the age of the Anthropocene and climate crisis? And to what extent, if any, can culture stay spatialized?