Shrines and the Domestication of Landscape

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2987151
AutoresC Mather (0000-0003-0245-5247, autor correspondente)
Ano2003
Volume59
Fascículo1
Páginas23-45
Data de publicação2003-04-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Anthropological Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0091-7710 • E-ISSN: 2153-3806
EditoraUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/jar.59.1.3631443
OpenAlexW2265651096
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas16
Referências citadas10

Landscapes reflect predominant patterns of social action and thought. In this article, the relationship between landscapes and shrines in Kusasi territory in northern Ghana is explicated in terms of the domestication of the natural world. Focusing on a particular settlement, I argue that Kusasi shrines embody local and tribal histories. Field observations and interviews reveal that the Kusasi use shrines to demarcate physical territories according to social divisions. Through shrines and their associated rites, the Kusasi transform the physical world into a ceremonial landscape. The transformation of the physical world is part of a ritual process involving the domestication of natural and spiritual forces. Shrines are sites of mediation where the Kusasi reiterate established meanings and generate new ones

Action (physics · Archaeology · Biology · Domestication · Environmental ethics · Ethnology · Geography · Mediation · Natural (archaeology · Settlement (finance · Social science · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management · Ecology · History · Philosophy · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies