Four Symbolic Boundaries of The American West

Wright, J. B.

doi:10.1111/j.1931-0846.2014.12019.x

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…However, not all sacred mountains are viewed as the center of the cosmos. The four sacred mountains of the Navajo are located in the four cardinal directions of the land in which the Navajo live, not its center [21]. Similar to the Navajo, the Mescalero living in southwestern New Mexico also have four sacred mountains [22].…”

Section: The Structuralist Geography Approach To Sacred Mountains Resmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interpreting the Inheritance Mechanism of the Wu Yue Sacred Mountains in China Using Structuralist and Semiotic Approaches

Zhou

2018

Sustainability

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The sustainability of sacred mountains has attracted the attention of both international communities and scholars. However, few studies have focused on the sustainability mechanisms of sacred mountains in the cultural dimension. This article presents a case study of the Wu Yue, i.e., five sacred mountains in China, which is endowed with the highest status and has been a sustainable cultural heritage for more than two thousand years. Drawing on the approaches of structuralist geography and semiotics, this article seeks to systematically interpret the inheritance mechanism of the Wu Yue. Two major conclusions are drawn. First, based on the approach of structuralist geography, the spatial structure of the Wu Yue can be viewed as a surface structure that is determined by a deep structure: the Five Elements Philosophy. Despite the relocation of the South Yue and the North Yue, each mountain of the Wu Yue has almost always been located in the five cardinal directions of the territory in accordance with the Five Elements Philosophy; this fact shows that the deep structure is crucial to maintaining the sustainability of the Wu Yue. Second, based on the semiotic approach, the sign of the sacred mountains has three levels. It is the third level of the sign, consisting of the spatial pattern as signifier and the Five Elements Philosophy as signified, that distinguishes the Wu Yue from other sacred mountains and has allowed them to be inherited for many generations. Poststructuralism can explain the Chinese semiotics of sacred mountains, but it is difficult to interpret the sustainability of the Wu Yue.

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Section: The Structuralist Geography Approach To Sacred Mountains Resmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interpreting the Inheritance Mechanism of the Wu Yue Sacred Mountains in China Using Structuralist and Semiotic Approaches

Zhou

2018

Sustainability

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“…Indeed, interaction between Native and Spanish cultures, and later Mexican and Anglo cultures, made for complex regional identity in the Southwest (Carver ). Such cultural diversity has influenced the language, architecture, and development of the Southwest, contributing to its identity as a separate region (Wright ). Although the Native Americans had settled the region beginning at least 13,000 years ago and the Spanish since the early seventeenth century, many parts remained terra incognitae (Wright ).…”

Section: Historical Settlement Patternsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The upshot is that by placing a given region under multiple and variegated disciplinary lenses, collective knowledge of that region is bound to increase. Indeed, as John Wright observes, meaningful and careful engagement with the concepts and boundaries of regions allows research to be “guided by geography, informed by debate, and inspired by spatial symbolism” (Wright , 231).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Rocky Mountains And The Southwest: Using Feature Names To Study Two Iconic Subregions In The American West

Holtkamp

Weaver

Butler

2018

Geographical Review

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Geographic regions can be defined in many ways, including via physiography, historical development patterns, language, and culture. After broadly surveying different methods of regionalization and their influences on studies of the American West, this article uses a vernacular‐mapping approach to: first, propose distinctive toponyms that are relatively unique to cultures situated in the American Rocky Mountains and Southwest areas; second, map the spatial distributions of these toponyms across the western American landscape; and, third, compare the resulting distributions to the geographies of western businesses that incorporate regional terms into their corporate names. Notably, while the Rocky Mountains and the Southwest are iconic American regions that have captured the imagination for centuries, their cultural geographies are relatively underexplored in the literature. This article makes a modest contribution to this research gap by using geographic information systems (GIS) to map high concentrations of culturally distinctive feature names. The results reveal that the boundaries of vernacular Southwest and Rocky Mountain regions correspond relatively well with boundaries delineated with physiographic characteristics

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Determinants of Appalachian Identity: Using Vernacular Traces to Study Cultural Geographies of an American Region

Weaver

Holtkamp

2015

Annals of the American Association of Geographers

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Four Symbolic Boundaries of The American West

Cited by 5 publications

References 31 publications

Interpreting the Inheritance Mechanism of the Wu Yue Sacred Mountains in China Using Structuralist and Semiotic Approaches

Interpreting the Inheritance Mechanism of the Wu Yue Sacred Mountains in China Using Structuralist and Semiotic Approaches

The Rocky Mountains And The Southwest: Using Feature Names To Study Two Iconic Subregions In The American West

Determinants of Appalachian Identity: Using Vernacular Traces to Study Cultural Geographies of an American Region

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