Muir, Roosevelt, and Yosemite National Park as an Emergent Sacred Symbol: An Interaction Ritual Analysis of a Camping Trip

Abstract

We argue that interaction ritual (IR) theory provides a temporal and interactional point of origin from which to trace an influential IR chain that became a deciding factor in the unification of Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove under federal control within present‐day Yosemite National Park. The emotions generated by the rituals of Roosevelt's and Muir's camping trip in May, 1903 in the short term, however, failed to result in a lasting consensus on ideology. This is a point that Roosevelt's lack of support for Muir in the subsequent controversy over the damming of the Hetch Hetchy Valley clearly documents. A video abstract is available at http://tinyurl.com/myv74yd

Hard Work and Fun: Collective Online Interaction in a Case of Photo Fraud

“…Perinbanayagam (1974:538) states that we “may fruitfully treat all human communicated material as ‘texts’ […] and apply the same methods of interpretation and understanding.” Studying a situation, the online discussion formulated in text, through the lens of interaction ritual theory means that we examine written expressions and rhetorical techniques regarding ritual elements and outcomes (c.f. Curry and Gordon 2017; Gordon 2018).…”

Ecotourism and the trouble with transportation

“…I shall never forget our three camps; the first in the solemn temple of the great sequoias; the next in the snow storm among the silver firs near the brink of the cliff; and the third on the floor of the Yosemite, in the open valley fronting the stupendous rocky mass of El Capitan with the falls thundering in the distance on either hand". (Roosevelt, 1903) Some readers might bristle with the idea of President Roosevelt being used as an exemplar of an ecotourism experience given his predilection for hunting and subsequent tension with Muir over the protection of the Hetch Hetchy Valley (Curry & Gordon, 2017;Richardson, 1959). While such concerns are valid, 'ecotourism' and 'ecotourist' are contested phenomena (see Fennell, 2015b) subject to the cultural framing of societies that participate in (Lorenzo-Romero, Alarcón-del-Amo, & Crespo-Jareño, 2019) and support (Schweinsberg, Darcy, & Wearing, 2018) nature-based travel.…”