SACRED LANDSCAPES AND BUILDING PRACTICES AT UCI, KANCAB, AND UCANHA, YUCATAN, MEXICO

2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 421-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott R. Hutson ◽  
Jacob A. Welch
Keyword(s):  
Power Relations ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Architectural Style ◽  
Sacred Landscape ◽  
Sacred Landscapes

AbstractDuring the emergence of regional hierarchy around the site of Uci in northwest Yucatan, Mexico, ordinary people affected power relations in at least two ways. First, in the Late Preclassic and Early Classic periods, Uci had the largest ceremonial center and the largest population within a 20 km radius. Uci also physically linked itself to smaller settlements, such as Kancab and Ucanha, by means of a broad stone causeway. Yet Kancab and Ucanha's quadripartite placement of causeways and central plaza suggests that its households created a sacred landscape that gave them a degree of ritual autonomy. Ordinary people impacted power relations a second way by participating in the development of the megalithic architectural style, which was used in the region's most authoritative buildings. The use of this style in domestic platforms illustrates the ability of modest households to make their own decisions and to act in ways that constituted society at large.

scholarly journals Structural organization of sacred landscapes

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 487-494 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Mishchenko
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Structure ◽  
Structural Organization ◽  
System Analysis ◽  
Temporal Structure ◽  
Morphological Structure ◽  
Human Perception ◽  
Sacred Landscape ◽  
Sacred Landscapes ◽  
Anthropogenic Landscape ◽  
Special Respect

The article presents the results of scientific developments concerning the structural organization of sacred landscapes. The methodological basis of the study is the concept of constructive-geographic analysis, which is based on the approaches of the natural and the humanitarian sciences. The system approach to the study of sacred landscapes as a holistic organized territorial structure and a set of methods is used in this work, in particular: structural and logical generalization and system analysis, comparative and geographical, historical and geographical. The author considers the significance of the notion of sacral landscape as being broader than religion per se, and considers it a natural, natural-anthropogenic and anthropogenic system associated with certain symbols of life, myths, significant events, and , indeed ,religious feelings that are of great importance to a person or group of people and requires special respect and protection. The structural organization of all sacred landscapes is characterized  by their properties and spatial structure and is closely connected with their social and functional purpose. As a result, such territorial systems can be divided into: confessional, taphal, active, abnormal. The sacred landscape is characterized by polystructurality, that is, the presence of spatial, temporal and morphological structure. In the spatial structure of the sacral landscape, the following components can be distinguished: the sacred object, anthropogenic and technogenic component, the landscape structure and a person with his/   her spiritual experience. In addition, such a structure has a hierarchical construction, where individual, local, regional, national and global levels can be distinguished. This article presents the peculiarities of the temporal structure of sacral landscapes and outlines the external, internal, and the functioning time. Particular attention is paid to the characteristic of internal time, where one can distinguish the following phases of development: the formation of a natural, natural-anthropogenic or anthropogenic landscape; the creation of a spiritual component; loss of sacred human perception of a natural, natural-anthropogenic or anthropogenic landscape; the disappearance of the natural or natural- anthropogenic landscape. Taking into account the morphological structure of the sacred landscape, it is substantiated that religious objects serving as markers of sacred landscapes cannot correspond to one or another morphological unit of the landscape, that is, completely repeat its outlines and boundaries. However, there is a correlation between the type of landscape and the features of the sacred objects that were formed there.

scholarly journals We Drew a Swastika of Grain: Vernacular Religion in the Tibetan Songs of Nubri, Nepal

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 593
Author(s):  
Mason Brown
Keyword(s):  
Folk Songs ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Sacred Landscape ◽  
Religious Knowledge ◽  
Community Values ◽  
Everyday Practices ◽  
Vernacular Religion ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Religious Subject ◽  
And Function

The academic study of Tibetan Buddhism has long emphasized the textual, philological, and monastic, and sometimes tended to ignore, dismiss, or undervalue the everyday practices and beliefs of ordinary people. In this article, I show that traditional folk songs, especially changlü, are windows into the vernacular religion of ethnically Tibetan Himalayans from the Nubri valley of Gorkha District, Nepal. While changlü literally means “beer song”, and they are often sung while celebrating, they usually have deeply religious subject matter, and function to transmit Buddhist values, reinforce social or religious hierarchies, and to emplace the community in relation to the landscape and to greater Tibet and Nepal. They do this mainly through three different tropes: (1) exhortations to practice and to remember such things as impermanence and death; (2) explications of hierarchy; and (3) employment of spatialized language that evokes the maṇḍala. They also sometimes carry opaque references to vernacular rituals, such as “drawing a swastika of grain” after storing the harvest. In the song texts translated here, I will point out elements that reproduce a Buddhist worldview, such as references to deities, sacred landscape, and Buddhist values, and argue that they impart vernacular religious knowledge intergenerationally in an implicit, natural, and sonic way, ensuring that younger generations internalize community values organically.

scholarly journals SACRAL LANDSCAPE: CONTENTS AND FUNCTIONS

2018 ◽  
pp. 83-88
Author(s):  
O. Mischenko
Keyword(s):  
Social Economic ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Temporal Organization ◽  
Sacred Landscape ◽  
Scientific Publications ◽  
Sacred Landscapes ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Special Respect ◽  
Religious Objects

The relevance of the research of scientific approaches to the content of the notion of sacred landscape, its structure and functions are substantiated. The article considers the sacral landscape as a holistic, stable system characterized by spatial and temporal organization, which ensures the process of uniting the nation, preserves authentic culture, opposes the destruction of spiritual foundations, has a great social, economic and political significance. We established the interdisciplinary nature of the investigation, which covers a wide range of issues related to various scientific disciplines: geography, social theory, culture, philosophical anthropology. The analysis of scientific publications concerning the interpretation of the concept of sacred and its etymology has been studied. The difference between the concepts of sacred and religious is substantiated. The content of the concept of sacredness, which gives people, actions, territory and other objects of such quality that separates them from the ordinary things and places them in the position of exceptional value and significance and on this basis requires an exceptional attitude, is determined. The modern approaches to the interpretation of the notion of the sacral landscape are investigated. It has been established that a large proportion of the sacred space belongs to religious objects. The main instruments of the “sacralization” of the landscape are identified – symbolization, myth and event that gives it an extremely valuable (holy) meaning. The experience of using the integrated approach in the interpretation of the notion of sacral landscape is substantiated. The definition of where the sacred landscape is considered as a natural, natural-anthropogenic, anthropogenic system, which is associated with certain life symbols, myths, significant events, religious feelings, is extremely valuable for a person or group of people and needs a special respect and protection. The results of the investigation indicate that the sacred landscape can be considered as a system that has a spatial-hierarchical structure, where we can distinguish individual, local, regional, national and global levels. The examples of sacred landscapes of different levels are given. The analysis of scientific publications about the functions of sacred geographical objects is carried out. It was established that such researches were based on the influence of sacred geographical objects on visitors, which testifies the integrity of interconnections in the complex system “man-landscape”. The leading approaches to classification of landscape functions are investigated. The classification of functions of the sacred landscape is developed, classes and subclasses of such functions are singled out. The political, social, economic and ecological functions of the sacred landscape, that have an environment formative role are characterized. The functions presented in the article have a theoretical value, since in practice there are close interrelationships between them, that is, they integrate and complement each other.

The Siberian Village of Okunevo as a Place of Power and its Sacred Landscape

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-62
Author(s):  
Julia Senina
Keyword(s):  
New Age ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Sacred Sites ◽  
Sacred Landscape ◽  
Natural Landscape ◽  
Sacred Landscapes ◽  
Specific Interpretation ◽  
The Village

Abstract The paper deals with contemporary places of power and New Age sacred landscapes in Russia.* It focuses on the Siberian village of Okunevo, its sacred sites, and their worshippers. Formation of this place of power was a result of the activity of individuals (both academics and adherents of new religious movements), combined with the specific interpretation of archaeological sites and the natural landscape of the area. The landscape around the village of Okunevo affects the interaction of people with the sacred loci and the ways the signs, symbols and narratives about them are created.

scholarly journals Recording and Reconstructing the Sacred Landscapes of Sicilian Naxos

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 416-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jari Pakkanen ◽  
Maria Costanza Lentini ◽  
Apostolos Sarris ◽  
Esko Tikkala ◽  
Meropi Manataki
Keyword(s):  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Line Drawing ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Three Dimensional Model ◽  
Sacred Landscape ◽  
Sacred Landscapes ◽  
Architectural Features ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Ground Penetrating ◽  
The City

AbstractIn recent years, an on-going project investigating the urban landscape of Naxos has surveyed and produced several new digital reconstructions of the settlement’s simple non-peripteral temples, most with highly decorative roofs. Three Archaic sacred buildings of Sicilian Naxos are used to demonstrate different approaches to recording the remains and reconstructing their architectural features. This work reflects changes in digital strategies over the past ten years. Tempietto H is a small shrine located outside the city’s boundaries and the site is currently inaccessible, so its reconstruction is based on excavation documentation and roof terracottas. The visible half of Tempietto C was documented using three-dimensional line-drawing with total stations and photogrammetry; the back-filled south-western part was surveyed with ground penetrating radar. Temple B is the largest sacred structure in Naxos. A geophysical survey gives new data on the eastern extent of the sanctuary. The area has been recorded with handheld and aerial photography to create a three-dimensional model of the sanctuary. A new orthogonal grid of the city was established circa 470 BCE and a rectangular base was placed in the south-east corner of every crossroad. These bases were the starting point for the plan, and their interpretation as altars converts the entire urban plan into a sacred landscape.

scholarly journals Cyprus and Sardinia at the Transition from the Bronze to the Iron Age: A Sacred Landscape Approach

Religions ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 48
Author(s):  
Giorgos Papantoniou ◽  
Anna Depalmas
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Landscape Approach ◽  
Sacred Landscape ◽  
Sacred Landscapes ◽  
Hierarchical Arrangement ◽  
Relations Of Power ◽  
Historic Approach ◽  
Transitional Phase

In the framework of this contribution, and taking a macro-historic sacred landscapes approach, we established a comparative project analysing in parallel the development of sacred landscapes of two mega-islands, Cyprus and Sardinia, at the transition from the Bronze to the Iron Age. In both Cyprus and Sardinia, the period between the 12th and 8th centuries BC seems to have been a time when re-negotiations of individual, societal, and political identities took place, and this is clearly reflected on the construction of the sacred landscapes of the two islands. We first present our ‘landscape/macro-historic approach’; we then define the chronological horizon and the socio-historical contexts under discussion for each island, exploring at the same time how the hierarchical arrangement of ritual sites appearing at this transitional phase seems to be related with articulated social order or linked with shifting relations of power and cultural influence. Finally, we proceed to a discussion addressing the following three questions: (1) what is the relation between individual insularities and the construction of sacred landscapes on these two mega-islands?; (2) how can a ‘landscape/macro-historic approach’ assist us in better formulating microscopic approaches on both islands at the transition from the Bronze to the Iron Age?; and (3) is a comparative approach viable?

scholarly journals Beyond East and West – Geocommunicating Historical Sacred Landscapes

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Markus Breier ◽  
Karel Kriz ◽  
Alexander Pucher ◽  
Lukas Neugebauer
Keyword(s):  
Coastal Region ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
3D Models ◽  
Aerial Images ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
Sacred Landscape ◽  
Online Application ◽  
Sacred Landscapes ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
East And West

Abstract. The Project “Beyond East and West: Geocommunicating the Sacred Landscapes of “Duklja” and “Raška” through Space and Time (11th–14th Cent.)” attempts to recreate and communicate the sacred landscape during a time of transition and transformation. The project has an interdisciplinary approach and incorporates multiple media, like maps, images, and 3D models. The study area of the project is situated at the junction between the Dinaric mountain range and the coastal region of the Adriatic Sea. Historically, the region was shaped by the power struggle between Byzantium, the First Bulgarian Empire, and the Serbian Realm. Ecclesiastically, it was a zone of interaction as well as encounter between Rome and Constantinople. The aim of the project is to discover and visualise the spatial and temporal aspects of these encounters and transformation processes.To communicate the historical sacred landscape, a map-centred online application is used as a hub. To explore the relations between places, events, actors and artifacts, the users can follow the links between the entities. Content created during this project is more than points, lines or polygons which can be displayed on a map. Many objects are complemented with images, and for selected churches 3D models using aerial images captured by UAVs will be created. “Story Maps” are created for selected core research topics to provide an easily accessible starting point for users. The broader aim beyond the current research project is to provide a flexible framework, which can serve as a platform for similar research projects in historical geography and digital humanities.

MEMORY, PLACE, AND LANDSCAPE IN ROMAN SYRIA: THE VIEW FROM THE SANCTUARIES OF MOUNT LEBANON

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-141
Author(s):  
PAUL NEWSON
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Social Memory ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Rural Environment ◽  
Sacred Landscapes ◽  
Critical Attention ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Roman Province

AbstractThe creation of memory and place within landscapes has received considerable critical attention in archaeology in recent years, with a focus on power relations, social cohesion, and social memory. As yet, such notions have not been fully explored within Roman contexts, generally in the Eastern Mediterranean, and particularly within the Roman province of Syria. In this region, the well-preserved Graeco-Roman temples of Lebanon have long been interpreted as powerful symbols of the Roman period. However, because of this status, study of these impressive structures has centred primarily on certain aspects, for example, the ‘Roman-ness’ of their architecture and the practical construction of their sacred landscapes. Utilizing notions of memory and power, place and performance, this paper seeks to move beyond such empirical analyses. Focusing on three case studies, it explores elements of the development of place through memory within the rural environment.

scholarly journals Off-Piste

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Rollinson
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Cultural Landscapes ◽  
Sacred Landscape ◽  
Therapeutic Landscapes ◽  
Sacred Landscapes ◽  
Natural Properties ◽  
The People ◽  
Geological Features ◽  
Unique Site ◽  
History Of

<p><b>Mount Ruapehu is an apex for New Zealand’s North Island. Not only does the grand scale of the mountain captivate many, the geological features of this vast landscape are also part of the maungas charm and unique to this place.</b></p> <p>In 1887 this sacred landscape was gifted to the people by paramount chief of Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Heuheu Tukino IV. This gift lunched the creation of New Zealand’s first National Park. Overtime this place of significance has become commercialized. Hosting two ski fields which gathers hundreds of thousands of people every year and constantly growing.</p> <p>This thesis addresses the question, how do we engage visitors with such an extraordinary landscape, representing the unique place it is.</p> <p>Researching through design around key themes such as place, cultural landscapes, therapeutic landscapes and meaningful experience. Unraveling many key qualities of the site, merging a pathway of discovery, joining both cultural and physical needs into design.</p> <p>Design explorations take place at three quintessential sites of Ruapehu. The River. The Peak. The Summit Zone. Drawing from the elemental qualities that make up each site, atmosphere within each design and overall form strives to represent these natural properties. Each site works through four design phases investigating the possibilities of development amongst the landscape.</p> <p>Ruapehu is a unique site carrying the weight of a long history of cultural and geological significance. This thesis introduces a discussion about the future of tourism in our sacred landscapes. Exploring possibilities of how architecture can respect and enhance such a unique place.</p>

Inca Sacred Landscapes in the Titicaca Basin

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Yaeger ◽  
José María López
Keyword(s):  
The Sun ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Sacred Landscape ◽  
Sacred Landscapes ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Titicaca Basin

Sacred landscapes are networks of meaningful places that are often woven together in mythic frameworks. Frequently they are understood as narratives, which are re-enacted through rituals and processions. We present archaeological data from the Copacabana Peninsula and Tiwanaku to show how the Inca appropriated pre-existing places and transformed the sacred landscape of the Titicaca Basin to inscribe the politically powerful Viracocha creation narrative, which held that Viracocha emerged on the Island of the Sun and travelled to Tiwanaku, where he created the sun, the moon, and the ancestral couples of all people, beginning with the Inca. We argue that this creation narrative was a key element in the Inca Empire’s ideology of legitimation. Consequently, the Inca appropriated and modified ritual places so that this narrative could be inscribed, re-enacted, commemorated, and remembered, and they developed an infrastructure to support these rituals and related processions.

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