Topic: Religion and the Cultural Landscape

Aim: How does religion organize physical space?

Antwerp, Belgium

RELIGION

Derived from Elements of the

Physical environment

Modifies the

landscape

The Religious Landscape • Structures of houses of worship are the most obvious contributions to the landscape.

• E.g.- In Europe, the Catholic church stands at the center of the town or village.

• Protestants went for more simple, less ornate structures.

• Mosques also dominate the landscape around them, but synagogues often tend to be less visible.

Hindu Temple:Angkor Wat, Cambodia. This temple suffers from neglect and destruction now, as Buddhism has supplanted Hinduism in most of Cambodia.

Buddhism & the landscape: • Has an enormous impact on the cultural landscape:

• Stupas, temples, monasteries, and bodhi or bo trees are all built or planted to honor the Buddha.

• Enormous statues honoring Buddha are also found in many places.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIeLrcUGIK4

@ 37 minutes in

Buddhist statue in South Korea

Hinduism: •Has an impact on the landscape, either through building or by the pilgrimages believers make to sacred rivers or other places. •Temples and shrines are everywhere; constructing them brings merit to those who own them•They are built in beautiful and auspicious places, near water since the gods won’t come to other places. •All temples have a circular spire as a reminder of sky, the real dwelling place of any god.

Varanasi, India

Sacred Landscapes of Islam

Muslim Mosques

Dome of this mosque in Isfahan, Iran demonstrates the importance of geometric art evident in Muslim architecture.

What impact does Christianity have on

the cultural landscape?

Two Southern Baptist Churches

Protestant and Catholic Landscapes in the United

States:

Scandinavian Lutheran Church (on left)

St. Mary’s

Catholic Church

(on right)

• Religious Settlements and Place Names:– Most human settlements serve an economic purpose, but some are established primarily for religious reasons.• Utopian settlement is an ideal community built around a religious way of life.–Salt Lake City culminated the utopian movement in the United States when it was built by the Mormons.

– Roman Catholic immigrants have frequently given religious place names, or toponyms, to settlements primarily in the U.S. Southwest and Quebec.

Religion and Toponyms:

Religious Toponyms: In Quebec, a province with a predominantly Roman Catholic population, a large number of settlements are named for saints, whereas relatively few religious toponyms are found in predominantly Protestant Ontario and New York.

Landscapes of the dead

Yucatan, Mexico

Why Do Religions Organize Space in Distinctive Patterns?

• Disposing of the Dead– Climate, topography, and religious doctrine combine to create differences in practices to shelter the dead.• Burial

– Christians, Muslims, and Jews typically bury the deceased in designated areas called cemeteries.» Cemeteries were typically only public open space in congested urban places prior to the nineteenth century.

• Cremation– Hindus wash the bodies of the deceased with water from the Ganges River first, then burn them with a slow fire on a funeral pyre.

The most common form of disposal of bodies in India is cremation. In middle-class families, bodies are more likely to be cremated in an electric oven at a crematorium. A poor person may be cremated in an open fire, such as this one within sight of the Taj Mahal. High-ranking officials and strong believers in traditional religious practices may also be cremated on an outdoor fire.

HINDU CREMATION Family members cover a body with wood for cremation, Agra, India.

Disposition of the Deceased: Each religion approaches the disposition of the deceased in different ways, and cultural landscapes reflect the religious traditions.

Hindu crematori

um in

Mombasa, Kenya

Amana, Iowa – German immigrants preferred order and tidiness

Jewish neighborhoods in European Cities the Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague, the Czech

Republic

Temples dedicated to ancestorsFound in most Balinese homesDaily offerings made

BALI, INDONESIA

• In Vancouver, British Columbia

Funerary burner

Hong Kong Condo:The hole in the center is for the dragon who lives on the hill.

Administration of Space:

• Administration of space:–Hierarchical religions •Latter-day Saints•Roman Catholics

–Locally autonomous religions •Islam•Protestant denominations

Roman Catholic hierarchy in the United States. The Roman Catholic Church divides the United States into provinces, each headed by an archbishop. Provinces are subdivided into dioceses, each headed by a bishop. The archbishop of a province also serves as the bishop of a diocese. Dioceses that are headed by archbishops are called archdioceses.