Dr. Lourdes Giordani
311 Alumni Hall
LourdesG@joe.alb.edu
Extension #7730 		Office Hours: M,W,F 12:30-1:30pm
T,TH 2:45-3:45pm
(also by appointment)

We need a William James to study The Varieties of Environmental Experience.
(Yi-Fu Tuan)

IDS 290-Sacred Landscapes

(Honors course)

Course Description

In this course we will explore the relation between landscapes and worldviews. Our main focus will be natural features considered sacred by native peoples (for example, caves). However, we will also discuss some human modifications of the natural landscape that enhance its use for symbolic purposes. Topics include:

  1. The concepts of space, place, symbol, and sacredness;
  2. Emic and etic perceptions of the physical environment;
  3. The impact of perception on resource utilization and group mobility;
  4. The role of myth, ritual, and history in the location of sacred sites;
  5. Aesthetics and sacred landscapes;
  6. Sacred landscapes and identities (for example, ethnic identity);
  7. Land tenure disputes, conservation of resources, and sacred sites.

We will be using a modest sample of the available literature (the literature is vast).

Required Readings (You can purchase these books at the campus bookstore.)

Bastien, Joseph W.
1985         Mountain of the Condor: Metaphor and Ritual in an Andean Ayllu. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, Inc.

Kelley, Klara B. and Harris Francis
1994         Navajo Sacred Places. Bloomington & Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press.

Tonkinson, Robert
1991         The Mardu Aborigines: Living the Dream in Australia's Desert. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Tuan, Yi-Fu
1990         Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception, Attitudes, and Values. New York: Columbia University Press.

Materials at the Library (Reserve)

I have placed several required and recommended (optional) readings on reserve at the library. Please see the assistants at the circulation desk. Readings with an asterisk * should be given priority.

Grading

Exams 300 points

  1. There will be three written exams (100 points each). I will provide all the paper that you will need.
  2. All exams have an essay component because I want you to:

Writing can help you accomplish all of the above and much more. I will give you a set of comprehensive essay questions the week before the exam. You must prepare for all questions because I will choose one for the test. Your written response will be the equivalent of a "short paper." In order to answer these questions successfully, you will have to include analysis and ethnographic data.

Attendance and class participation 50 points
Total
350 points

Note:

  1. Try to complete the reading assignment for the day on which it is listed in order to participate in class discussions. Participation in class is an essential component of the learning process. Read for understanding. Do not despair if you do not finish the reading assignment; the main points are discussed in class.
  2. I encourage you to meet with me during office hours. Visit any time and I will see you if I am available.
  3. All material covered in this class is subject to examination. Illustrations and audiovisual material will supplement lectures.
  4. Attendance is essential and no more than two absences will be permitted without a written medical excuse.
  5. There will be no make-up exams unless a serious situation arises.
  6. There is no extra credit in this course.
  7. Any changes made to this syllabus will be announced in class.
  8. Remember that I am here to help you succeed academically. Do not hesitate to speak with me.

Schedule

  Part I. Environmental Perception, Attitudes, and Values
Week 1
  
9/1 Introduction: Why Study Sacred Landscapes?
9/3

The Senses, Culture, and Worldview

*(Topophilia by Tuan, pages 1-91)

Week 2  
9/8,10

Topophilia, Symbolism, and Life Styles

*(Topophilia by Tuan, pages 92-248)

[What does Yi-Fu Tuan mean by "topophilia"? Why is this concept relevant?]
Week 3  
9/15,17

Finish Topophilia.

Reserve (Required):

(1) Pygmies (Africa)
*Turnbull, Colin M.
1963 The Lesson of the Pygmies. Scientific American 208(1):28-37.

Wilkie, David and Gilda Morelli
1998 Road Toll. Natural History 107(6):12-18.

(2) Campa (Perú)
Weiss, Gerald
1972 Campa Cosmology. Ethnology 11:157-172.

[Compare the Campas' and Pygmies' attitudes towards their environment.]

 

Part II. Some Natural Features in the Landscape
  [What cosmological themes are associated with the various features? For example, chaos, balance, and rebirth. Which themes recur from one geographical area to another?]
Week 4  
9/22 Exam #1
9/24

Earth
Reserve (Required):

*Krupp, E. C.
1997 Mother Earth. In Skywatchers, Shamans, and Kings: Astronomy and the Archaeology of Power (by E. C. Krupp). New York: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 97-125.
Week 5  
9/29 &
10/1

Caves and Rock Art

Reserve (Required):

*Conkey, Margaret W.
1981 A Century of Palaeolithic Cave Art. Archaeology 34(4):20-28.

*Lewis-Williams, David J. and Jean Clottes
1998 The Mind in the Cave-the Cave in the Mind: Altered Consciousness in the Upper Paleolithic. Anthropology of Consciousness 9(1):13-21.

*Turner, Victor W.
1972 Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites De Passage. In Reader in Comparative Religion: An Anthropological Approach (eds. William A. Lessa and Evon Z. Vogt). 3rd edition. New York: Harper & Row, pp. 338-347.

Weightman, Barbara A.
1996 Sacred Landscapes and the Phenomenon of Light. The Geographical Review 86(1):59-71.

Week 6  
10/6,8

Rocks and Volcanoes

Reserve (Required):

(1)Rocks

Tilley, Christopher
1996 The Powers of Rocks: Topography and Monument Construction on Bodmin Moor. World Archaeology 28(2):161-176.

(2)Volcanoes

*Edelstein, Michael R.
1995 Cultural Relativity of Impact Assessment: Native Hawaiian Opposition to Geothermal Energy Development. Society and Natural Resources 8:19-31.

Schlehe, Judith
1996 Reinterpretations of Mystical Traditions: Explanations of a Volcanic Eruption in Java. Anthropos 91:391-409.

Week 7  
10/13,15

Mountains
Reserve (Required):

*Bernbaum, Edwin
1991 The Himalayas, Realm of the Sacred. In The Power of Place: Sacred Ground in Natural and Human Environments (comp. James A. Swan). Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, pp. 107-119.

*Fleming, Jane
1983 Sacred Peak of Tai Shan. The Geographical Magazine 55:534-7.

*Freeman, Michael
1998 Moving Mountain. Geographical 70(2):40-44.

Townsend, Richard F.
*1982 Pyramid and Sacred Mountain. In Ethnoastronomy and Archaeoastronomy in the American Tropics (eds. Anthony F. Aveni and Gary Urton). New York, N. Y.: New York Academy of Sciences, pp. 37-61.

1992 The Renewal of Nature at the Temple of Tlaloc. In The Ancient Americas: Art from Sacred Landscapes (ed. Richard Townsend). Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, pp. 171-185.
Week 8  
10/19 (Fall Break)
10/22

Trees and Water

Reserve (Required):

*Boomgaard, Peter
1995 Sacred Trees and Haunted Forests in Indonesia. In Asian Perceptions of Nature (eds. Ole Bruun and Arne Kalland). Richmond: Curzon Press, pp. 47-62.

Hou, Wenhui
1997 Reflections on Chinese Traditional Ideas of Nature. Environmental History 2(4):482-493.

*Lai, Whalen
1990 Looking for Mr. Ho Po: Unmasking the River God of Ancient China. History of Religions 29(4):335-350.

  Part III. Case Studies: Ethnographies
Week 9  
10/27 Exam #2
10/29 *Discussion of The Mardujara Aborigines by R. Tonkinson
Week 10  
11/3,5

Continue with The Mardujara Reserve (Required):

*Stanner, W. E. H.
1972 The Dreaming. In Reader in Comparative Religion: An Anthropological Approach (eds. William A. Lessa and Evon Z. Vogt). 3rd edition. New York: Harper & Row, pp.269-277.

Week 11  
11/10,12

*Discussion of Navajo Sacred Places by K. B. Kelley and H. Francis

Reserve (Required):

Momaday, N. Scott
1976 Native American Attitudes to the Environment. In Seeing with a Native Eye (ed. Walter Holden Capps). New York: Harper & Row, pp.79-85.

Week 12  
11/17,19 Continue with Navajo Sacred Places
Week 13  
11/24

Sacred Places Among the Quechua

Reserve (Required):

Niles, Susan A.
1992 Inca Architecture and the Sacred Landscape. In The Ancient Americas: Art from Sacred Landscapes, edited by Richard Townsend. Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, pp.347-357.

*Nuñez del Prado, Juan Víctor
1974 The Supernatural World of the Quechua of Southern Peru as Seen from the Community of Qotobamba. In Native South Americans (ed. Patricia J. Lyon). Boston: Little, Brown and Company, pp.238-250.

11/26 (Thanksgiving vacation)
Week 14  
12/1,3 *Discussion of Mountain of the Condor by Joseph W. Bastien
Week 15  
12/8,10 Continue with Mountain of the Condor
Week 16  
12/14 Exam #3(Final)
(Monday from 1-3pm)

Recommended Readings

These readings are optional. They provide supplemental information that may interest you. I will discuss some of them in class in order to enhance our discussions. ILL means that you may have to request the material through interlibrary loan. Most is on reserve.

Week 1

Eliade, Mircea
1959         The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion (trans. Willard R. Trask). New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. (See pages 9-65)

Geertz, Clifford
1966         Religion as a Cultural System. In Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion (ed. M. Banton). London: Tavistock, pp. 1-46.

Week 2

Bunkse, Edmunds V.
1990         Saint-Exupéry's Geography Lesson: Art and Science in the Creation and Cultivation of Landscape Values. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 80(1)96-108.

Week 4

Jung, C. G.
1968         The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, No. 9: The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (trans. R. F. C. Hull). 2nd edition. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press. (See pages 3-53)
1970         The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, No. 10: Civilization in Transition (trans. R. F. C. Hull). 2nd edition. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press. (See "Mind and Earth," pages 29-49)

Kidner, David W.
1998         Culture and the Unconscious in Environmental Theory. Environmental Ethics 20(1):61-80.

Scully, Vincent
1992         Mankind and the Earth in America and Europe. In The Ancient Americas: Art from Sacred Landscapes (ed. Richard Townsend). Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, pp. 71-82.

Week 5

Lewis-Williams, David J. and T. A. Dowson
1993         On Vision and Power in the Neolithic: Evidence from the Decorated Monuments. Current Anthropology 34(1):55-65.

Patterson, Carol
1998         Seeking Power at Willow Creek Cave, Northern California. Anthropology of Consciousness 9(1):38-49.

Whitley, David S.
1998         Cognitive Neuroscience, Shamanism and Rock Art of Native California. Anthropology of Consciousness 9(1):22-37.

Week 6

Richards, Colin
1996         Monuments as Landscape: Creating the Centre of the World in the Late Neolithic Orkney. World Archaeology 28(2):190-208.

Taylor, Paul W.
1995         Myths, Legends and Volcanic Activity: An Example From Northern Tonga. The Journal of the Polynesian Society 104(3):323-346.

Week 7

Clarke, Graham E.
1995         Thinking through Nature in Highland Nepal. In Asian Perceptions of Nature (ed. Ole Bruun and Arne Kalland). Richmond: Curzon Press, pp. 88-102.

De la Fuente, Beatriz
1992         Order and Nature in Olmec Art. In The Ancient Americas: Art from Sacred Landscapes (ed. Richard Townsend). Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, pp.121-133.

Hori, Ichiro
1966         Mountains and their Importance for the Idea of the Other World in Japanese Folk Religion. History of Religions 6(1):1-23.

Pasztory, Esther
1992         The Natural World as Civic Metaphor at Teotihuacan. In The Ancient Americas: Art from Sacred Landscapes (ed. Richard Townsend). Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, pp. 135-145.

Smith, Michael E.
1997         Life in the Provinces of the Aztec Empire. Scientific American (September):76- 83.

Sundstrom, Linea
1996         Mirror of Heaven: Cross-Cultural Transference of the Sacred Geography of the Black Hills. World Archaeology 28(2):177-189.

Week 8

Eck, Diana L.
1981         India's Tirthas: "Crossings" in Sacred Geography. History of Religions 20(4):323-344.

Weeks 9 + 10

Eliade, Mircea
1966         Australian Religions: An Introduction (Part I). History of Religions 6(2):108- 134.
1967         Australian Religions: An Introduction (Part II). History of Religions 6(3):208- 235.

Morphy, Howard
1997         Landscape and the Reproduction of the Ancestral Past. In The Power of Place: Sacred Ground in Natural and Human Environments (comp. James A. Swan). Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, pp. 184-209.

Weeks 11 + 12

Basso, Keith H.
1984         "Stalking with Stories": Names, Places, and Moral Narratives among the Western Apache. In Text, Play, and Story: The Construction of Self and Society (ed. E. M. Bruner). Washington, D.C.: American Ethnological Society, pp.19-55.

Gill, Sam D.
1983         Navajo Views of Their Origin. Handbook of North American Indians X:502-505. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.

Griffin-Pierce, Trudy
1992         Earth is My Mother, Sky is My Father: Space, Time, and Astronomy in Navajo Sandpainting. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press. (ILL)

Lassiter, Cisco
1987         Relocation and Illness: The Plight of the Navajo. In Pathologies of the Modern Self: Postmodern Studies on Narcissism, Schizophrenia, and Depression (ed. David Michael Levin). New York: New York University Press, pp. 221-230.

Mills, Barbara J. and T. J. Ferguson
1998         Preservation and Research of Sacred Sites by the Zuni Indian Tribe of New Mexico. Human Organization 57(1):30-42.

Week 13

Mcewan, Colin and Maarten Van de Guchte
1992         Ancestral Time and Sacred Space in Inca State Ritual. In The Ancient Americas: Art from Sacred Landscapes (ed. Richard Townsend). Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, pp. 359-371.

Reinhard, Johan
1992         Interpreting the Nazca Lines. In The Ancient Americas: Art from Sacred Landscapes (ed. Richard Townsend). Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, pp. 291-301.