Our Transcapes is part of Queer Natures, a project by Dr Ina Linge, University of Exeter.
Through queer archaeology, storytelling and pilgrimage, Our Transcapes seeks to improve the mental wellbeing of young trans people in the UK. It plays with prehistoric British nondual attitudes towards gender, biological sex, nature/culture and spirituality to challenge present-day, anti-trans sentiments and the binary sociocultural frameworks that arguably also harm our environments.
Our Transcapes invites trans and genderqueer participants to explore sites where evidence of prehistoric genderqueerness as ecological spirituality has been found. It asks if trans and genderqueer people can better feel in accordance with their own ‘natural’ness when visiting sites where genderqueerness has been revered, despite current social narratives that tell us we don’t belong.
By applying these explorations to creative practice, participants can adopt various perspectives on transness outside of their personal experience, allowing for wider recognition that anti-trans narratives are just another story, rather than ‘the truth’.
The project also considers what prehistoric nondual attitudes might offer us today – not just to trans and genderqueer folks living in a hostile environment but to all beings, human and nonhuman, as we face a climate crisis.
This project began in September 2024 and will finish in 2026. It is run by the University of Exeter and funded by the UK Research and Innovation funding service.
Our Transcapes bibliography
- Alberti, Benjamin, 2012. ‘Queer Prehistory: Bodies, performativity and matter’, in Blackwell Companion to Gender Prehistory, edited by Diane Bolger. London: Blackwell Publishing.
- Armstrong, John & de Botton, Alain, 2023. Art as Therapy. London: Phaidon Press Limited.
- Coles, Bryony, 1990. ‘Anthropomorphic Wooden Figures from Britain and Ireland’, in Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 56, pp. 315-333. Cambridge University Press.
- Conneller, Chanta, 2004. ‘Becoming Deer: Corporeal Transformations at Star Carr’, in Archaeological Dialogues 11 (1) 37–56. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Crawford, Paul & Brown, Brian & Charise, Andrea, 2020. The Routledge Companion to Health Humanities. London: Routledge.
- Erickson, Bruce & Mortimer-Sandilands, Catriona (ed.), 2010. Queer Ecologies: Sex, Nature, Politics, Desire. Indiana: Indiana.
- Faye, Shon, 2021. The Transgender Issue. London: Penguin Books.
- Garfinkel, Alan P. & Mykhailova, Natalia, 2018. ‘Horned Hunter – Shaman, Ancestor and Deity’ in Origin of language and culture: ancient history of mankind, Vol. 5, No 1, pp. 5–26.
- Gaydarska, Bisserka & Rebay-Salisbury, Katharina & Ramirez Valiente, Paz & Esther Fries, Jana, 2023. ‘To Gender or not To Gender? Exploring Gender Variations through Time and Space’, European Journal of Archaeology 26 (3) 2023, 271–298, p. 282. Cambridge University Press.
- Groundwork, 2021, ‘Out of Bounds: Equity in Access to Urban Nature’ report. Accessed November 2023.
- Hansard, March 2023. Transcript of Parliamentary debate ‘Transphobia and Hate Crimes against Trans People’. Accessed November 2023.
- Heyam, Kit, 2022. Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender. London: Hodder & Stoughton Limited.
- Hogan, Katie, 2020. ‘Past and Future Worlds: Queer and Non-Binary Dystopian Narratives‘ in Network in Canadian History & Environment. Accessed July 2024.
- Ian D. Rotherham, 2010. Yorkshire’s Forgotten Fenlands. Barnsley: Warncliffe Books.
- Koch, Julia Katharina, Nakoinz, Oliver, ‘Gender and the Environment in Archaeology,’ in Gender Transformations in Prehistoric and Archaic Societies, 2019. Leiden: Sidestone Press.
- Mate, Gabor, & Mate, Daniel, 2022. The Myth of Normal: Illness, Health and Healing in a Toxic Culture. London: Vermilion London.
- Milner, Nicky & Conneller, Chantal & Taylor, Barry (eds.), 2018. Star Carr, Volume I: A Persistent Place in a Changing World. York: White Rose University Press.
- Et al. (eds.), Star Carr, Volume II: Studies in Technology, Subsistence and Environment. York: White Rose University Press.
- Morgan, Cheryl, 2022. ‘Trans People in Ancient Britain,’ The Diversity Trust. Accessed August 2023.
- Morton, Timothy, 2021. All Art is Ecological. London: Penguin Classics.
- Mykhailova, Natalia, 2019. ‘Shaman’s burials in Prehistoric Europe. Gendered images’ in Gender Transformations in Prehistoric and Arcaic Societies; Koch, Julia Katharina & Kirleis, Wiebke (ed.), 2019. Leiden: Sidestone Press.
- Stonewall, 2018, ‘LGBT in Britain – Health’ report. Accessed 28 November 2023.
- Tempest, Kae, 2022. On Connection. London: Faber & Faber Limited.
- Vakoch, Douglas A., 2020. Transecology: Transgender Perspectives on Environment and Nature. London: Routledge.
- Vitebsky, Piers, 2001. The Shaman: Voyages of the Soul, Trance, Ecstasy and Healing from Siberia to the Amazon. London: Duncan Baird Publishers.
- Weismantel, Mary, ‘Towards a Transgender Archaeology: A Queer Rampage through Queer History,’ in Transgender Studies Reader II, ed. Stryker, Susan & Aizura, Aren. London: Routledge.
- Williams, Mike, 2010. Prehistoric Belief: Shamans, Trance and the Afterlife. Gloucestershire: The History Press.
Secondary sources
- The British Pilgrimage Trust. Accessed January 2024.
- Psychogeography: A Purposeful Drift Through the City. Accessed January 2024.
- Harvey, Williams, 2000. Indigenous Religions: A Companion. London: Cassell.
- Lewis-Williams, David, 2020. The Mind in the Cave. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd.
- Giles, Melanie, 2020. Bog Bodies: Face to Face with the Past. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
- Graeber, David & Wengrow, David, 2022. The Dawn of Everything. London: Penguin Books.
- Morton, Timothy, 2018. Being Ecological. London: Pelican Books.
- Ó Crualaoich, Gearóid, 2017. The Book of the Cailleach: Stories of the Wise-Woman Healer. Ireland: Cork University Press.
- Palmer, Martin, 2012. Sacred Land: Decoding Britain’s Extraordinary Past Through Its Towns, Villages and Countryside. London: Piatkus.
- Pryor, Francis, 2015. Home: A Time Traveller’s Tales From Britain’s Prehistory. London: Penguin Books.
- Rotherham, Ian D., 2020. Peatlands: Ecology, Conservation and Heritage. London: Earthscan, Routledge.
