Topic: Religion and the Cultural Landscape

1
Topic Religion and the Cultural Landscape Aim
How does religion organize physical space?
Antwerp, Belgium
2
(No Transcript)
3
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.

4
Hindu Temple Angkor Wat, Cambodia. This temple
suffers from neglect and destruction now, as
Buddhism has supplanted Hinduism in most of
Cambodia.
5
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?vJIeLrcUGIK4
_at_ 37 minutes in
6
Buddhist statue in South Korea
7
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 wont come to
  other places.
• All temples have a circular spire as a reminder
  of sky, the real dwelling place of any god.

8
Varanasi, India
9
Sacred Landscapes of Islam
Muslim Mosques Dome of this mosque in Isfahan,
Iran demonstrates the importance of geometric art
evident in Muslim architecture.
10
What impact does Christianity have on the
cultural landscape?
11
(No Transcript)
12
Two Southern Baptist Churches
13
(No Transcript)
14
(No Transcript)
15
(No Transcript)
16
Protestant and Catholic Landscapes in the United
States
Scandinavian Lutheran Church (on left) St.
Marys Catholic Church (on right)
17

• 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.

18
Religion and Toponyms
19
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.
20
Landscapes of the dead

• Yucatan, Mexico

21
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.

22
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.
23
HINDU CREMATION Family members cover a body with
wood for cremation, Agra, India.
24
Disposition of the Deceased Each religion
approaches the disposition of the deceased in
different ways, and cultural landscapes reflect
the religious traditions.
Hindu crematorium in Mombasa, Kenya
25
Amana, Iowa German immigrants preferred order
and tidiness
26
Jewish neighborhoods in European Cities the Old
Jewish Cemetery in Prague, the Czech Republic
27
Temples dedicated to ancestors Found in most
Balinese homes Daily offerings made
BALI, INDONESIA
28

• In Vancouver, British Columbia

Funerary burner
29
Hong Kong CondoThe hole in the center is for
the dragon who lives on the hill.
30
Administration of Space

• Administration of space
• Hierarchical religions
• Latter-day Saints
• Roman Catholics
• Locally autonomous religions
• Islam
• Protestant denominations

31
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.