Tesi sul tema "Spiritual landscape"

This thesis examines spiritual landscapes, illustrating their richness in understanding cross-cultural relations and revealing deeper cultural attitudes toward the environment. It also shows that spiritual landscapes hold visible and invisible remnants of the past, providing insights for intercultural relations today. The research is timely, building on the momentum of international and national efforts to better understand and preserve indigenous cultures and settler heritages. The collisions of diverse cultures during first contact (1400s to 1700s) left society with enduring intercultural challenges. Perspectives on colonial impacts range from culture annihilation and land dispossession to legitimate expressions of imperial power and politics. Regarding land issues, conflicts persist in ownership and management (e.g., legislation and treaties), preservation and designation (e.g., how and whose values apply), and use and access (e.g., equitable provision and regulation of rival commercial, community and conservancy interests). This thesis elevates earlier judgements to reveal insights into land issues focusing on multicultural contributions. The comprehensive approach used to study Sitka Alaska⁰́₈s spiritual landscape considers spiritual indicators including burial grounds, worship buildings, homelands, and place names, alongside lasting cultural attitudes toward such places (geomentalities). Indigenous Tlingit, Russian and American contributions to patterns of settlement and development of sacred places are revealed in the cultural layering (palimpsest) evident in the contemporary landscape. Using an inclusive comparable platform broadens Western discourses of spirituality, planning and land management. It recognises multicultural aspects evident in contemporary settings, including power relations and settler practices of appropriation and conquest that continue in planning instruments and perpetuated spatial preferences. Such observations, together with spiritual indicators and attitudes provide a comprehensive exploration of Sitka⁰́₈s spiritual landscape to celebrate several cultural heritages on equal terms. With globalisation and ongoing land conflicts this work urges planners, policy makers and educators to consider the value of adding geographic and spiritual dimensions to enhance cross-cultural understanding. Practical applications for a range of local and international settings and individual decision-making are presented for consideration.

This study is presented to: address principles, rules and application of Feng Shui theory for placement of man-made structures including planting trees, color, landform, water flows, etc.; introduce the basic information of Feng Shui theory; and research the background philosophy of them. Various basic principles of Feng Shui are introduced with figures and explanations. Basic vocabularies of Feng Shui are identified to apply landscape design concepts. Research on the Foundations of Feng Shui theory is conducted to interpret each relevant Feng Shui rule to connect it to Chi theory. Feng Shui principles based on Chi theory are deduced to apply to landscape design. Various patterns of location, place arrangement and orientation of structures are introduced as examples based on Feng Shui as a landscape design reference. The deduced Feng Shui principles are applied to analyze the site of these residential housing case studies.
Department of Landscape Architecture

Humans have unique capacities to enhance and degrade landscapes. Many indigenous peoples embody conceptual systems that perceive, value and interact within landscapes differently than capitalist models of conservation and development. This thesis examines the spiritual ecology of the circum-Roraima landscape atop the Guiana Shield in South America. An extensive interdisciplinary literature review contextualizes primary data collected during 15 months of multi-sited ethnogeographic fieldwork among Pemon and Ka'pon members of the Carib linguistic family. Data in the form of narratives are interpreted within the theoretical framework of landscape that links subfields of historical, spiritual and political ecology. A detailed research program designed to collect qualitative emic data draws methods from ethnography, ethnoecology, historical ecology, grounded theory and decolonizing methodologies. An analysis of the adaptive capacities of situated spiritual ecological knowledge and practices is an important component of this research, since this dimension of landscape is often neglected in conservation and development studies. Ultimately, the project documents and analyzes endangered knowledge systems, reveals new historical details of the syncretic Areruya highland revitalization movement and articulates a shamanic land ethic.

In the matrix of land uses beyond protected areas, people protect nature in a myriad of ways, and have, in some cases, for millennia. With the growth of global databases of Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas and Territories (ICCAs) and registries of sacred natural sites, opportunities are emerging for conservationists to engage custodians of sacred forests beyond protected areas. As conservation expands beyond protected areas, successful engagement emerges from unities in the perspectives of conservationists and custodians of sacred forests. This thesis aims to identify unities for conservationists' engagement with custodians of sacred forests on a landscape scale. The thesis geolocates sacred forests and assesses the implications for conservation in four diverse landscapes in the Gambia, Ethiopia, Malaysia and Japan. The scale of inquiry varies across the papers, from the sub-district level to a national scale. This research indicates that while sacred forests may be overlooked by conservationists due to their small size and autonomous management, when they are considered in concert on a landscape scale, opportunities for conservation engagement become apparent. This thesis demonstrates that sacred forests can be prevalent in diverse landscapes, persist over time, and provide ecosystem services due to their spatial distribution.

Doctor of Philosophy
This thesis examines the transmission of Protestantism to Australia by the early British colonists and its consequences for their engagement with the land between 1788 and 1850. It explores the ways in which colonists gave religious meaning to their surrounds, particularly their use of exile and exodus narratives to describe journeying to the colony and their sense of their destination as a site of banishment, a wilderness or a Promised Land. The potency of these scriptural images for colonising Europeans has been recognised in North America and elsewhere: this study establishes and details their significance in early colonial Australia. This thesis also considers the ways in which colonists’ Protestant values mediated their engagement with their surrounds and informed their behaviour towards the land and its indigenous inhabitants. It demonstrates that leading Protestants asserted and acted upon their particular values for industry, order, mission and biblicism in ways that contributed to the transformation of Aboriginal land. From the physical changes wrought by industrious agricultural labour through to the spiritual transformations achieved by rites of consecration, their specifically Protestant values enabled Britons to inhabit the land on familiar material and cultural terms. The structural basis for this study is provided by thematic biographies of five prominent colonial Protestants: Richard Johnson, Samuel Marsden, William Grant Broughton, John Wollaston and John Dunmore Lang. The private and public writings of these men are examined in light of the wider literature on religion and colonialism and environmental history. By delineating the significance of Protestantism to individual colonists’ responses to the land, this thesis confirms the trend of much recent British and Australian historiography towards a more religious understanding of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Its overarching argument is that Protestantism helped lay the foundation for colonial society by encouraging the transformation of the environment according to the colonists’ values and needs, and by providing ideological support for the British use and occupation of the territory. Prominent Protestants applied their religious ideas to Australia in ways that tended to assist, legitimate or even necessitate the colonisation of the land.

This thesis explores the ways in which Christian faith ‘adds value’ to the ‘carescape’ and ‘caringscapes’ of statutory hostels for people experiencing homelessness in the United Kingdom. The ways that a distinctively Christian organisational ethos is created and experienced through the material, regulatory and performative dimensions of space, place and subjectivity, are explored through a case study of the Salvation Army’s contemporary statutory accommodation services for single homeless people. Drawing upon Cloke’s notions of ‘theo-ethics’ and Conradson’s concept of ‘therapeutic landscape experience’, the links between spirituality, care and ‘value added’ are examined from the perspective of staff, volunteers and service users. This analysis extends the debate on the potential for faith-based organisations to make a distinctive and valuable contribution to care for people experiencing homelessness, by foregrounding the spiritual and emotional dimensions that texture these organisational landscapes of care. A feminist epistemological approach is taken to illuminate the nuances of care-giving and care-receiving, with particular attention paid to the emotional and spiritual sensitivities underpinning social interactions, and how these dimensions are perceived, narrated and experienced from a variety of perspectives. Using an ethnographic methodology, this study involved the undertaking of 91 semi-structured interviews, a six-week period of participant observation in a specific Salvation Army Lifehouse, and attendance at four professional social service and chaplaincy conferences run by the Salvation Army UK. The research findings suggest that Christianity adds value to these institutional spaces of care in a highly nuanced way, dependent on one’s subjectivity. A second observation is that the potential for faith to add value within statutory arenas of care for the homeless is being compromised due to the pressures associated with the incumbent neoliberal contract culture within which Lifehouses are embedded. A third contribution concerns the potential for a faith-based organisation to act as a crucible for the emergence of postsecular rapprochement: it is suggested that an intersectional approach to analysing this socio-spatial process is necessary, due to the strategic role that gender, age, sexuality and race were revealed to play in fostering, or dissipating, the affective relationships that underpinned fragile moments of rapprochement.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Deakin University, Victoria, 2005.
Submitted to the School of Education of the Faculty of Education, Deakin University. Degree conferred 2006. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 211-225)

Beginning in the second half of the twentieth century, three American astronomical observatories in Arizona and Hawai'i were transformed from scientific research facilities into mountains of controversy. This dissertation examines the histories of conflict between Native, environmentalist, and astronomy communities over telescope construction at Kitt Peak, Mauna Kea, and Mt. Graham from the mid-1970s to the present. I situate each history of conflict within shifting social, cultural, political, and environmental tensions by drawing upon narrative as a category of analysis. Astronomers, environmentalist groups, and the Native communities of the Tohono O'odham Nation, the San Carlos Apaches, and Native Hawaiians deployed competing cultural constructions of the mountains--as an ideal observing site, a "pristine" ecosystem, or a spiritual temple--and these narratives played a pivotal role in the making of contested landscapes in postwar American astronomy.
History of Science

Cette thèse présente l’expérience de l’Extrême-Orient que Claudel a vécue et a écrite dans ses œuvres poétiques pendant trois périodes successives: la période chinoise (1895-1909), la période japonaise (1921-1927), et la période post-japonaise (1927-1955). En tant que « poète catholique », Claudel prête plus attention que les autres écrivains-voyageurs français à toutes sortes de formes spirituelles manifestées dans l'univers chinois ou japonais. Cependant, sa quête du spirituel ne se borne pas à une réflexion métaphysique pure, mais se superpose toujours à une perception « physique », mobilisée lorsqu'il se promène dans le monde réel ou artistique de l’Extrême-Orient. Le « corps » y joue un rôle important et se présente comme un mode de connaissance privilégié, permettant à Claudel d’accéder à un monde d’altérité jusqu’alors inconnu pour lui. Étant donné les riches dimensions du «corps » qui constituent l’« expérience sensible » de Claudel en Extrême-Orient, nous divisons notre thèse en deux parties, selon deux volets principaux (le paysage et l’écriture) qui témoignent par excellence de la relation étroite mais complexe entre le corps et l’âme, entre le sensible et le spirituel chez cet explorateur de l’Asie. Dans la première partie consacrée à son expérience du paysage, notre attention est non seulement prêtée au cadre réel, aux multiples excursions que Claudel effectue dans les régions naturelles des deux pays, mais aussi au cadre littéraire et artistique, afin de révéler les inspirations qu’apporte la représentation extrême-orientale du paysage à sa création des nouvelles formes poétiques. Dans la deuxième partie, centrée sur son expérience de l’écriture,nous étudions respectivement sa perception de l’idéogramme chinois, sa pratique de la calligraphie orientale et son adaptation des petits poèmes chinois et japonais. Sous une perspective transculturelle et comparatiste, nous essayons de dégager les références chinoises et japonaises qui associent aussi étroitement l’expérience sensible à la compréhension du spirituel, afin de dévoiler dans quelle mesure Claudel s’éloigne ou s’inspire de ces sources de l’Autre et comment celles-ci l’amènent à enrichir son expression poétique et à réaliser sa vocation religieuse dans une création littéraire absolument originale
This thesis presents the experience of the Far East that Claudel lived and wrote in his poetic works during three successive periods: the Chinese period (1895-1909), the Japanese period (1921-1927), and the post-Japaneseperiod (1927-1955). As a "Catholic poet", Claudel pays more attention than other French traveler-writers to allkinds of spiritual forms manifested in the Chinese or Japanese universe. However, his search for the spiritual is not limited to a pure metaphysical reflection, but is always superimposed on a "physical" perception, mobilized when he walks in the real or artistic world of the Far East. The "body" plays an important role and presents itself as a privileged way of knowing, allowing Claudel to enter into a world hither to unknown to him. Given the rich dimensions of the "body" that make up Claudel's "sensible experience" in the Far East, we divide our thesis into two parts, according to two main aspects (landscape and writing) which demonstrate par excellence the close but very complex relationship between the body and the spirit, between the sensible and the spiritual in this explorer of Asia. In the first part focused on his experience of the landscape, our attention is not onlygiven to the real framework, to the multiple excursions that Claudel completes in the natural regions of the two countries, but also to the literary and artistic framework, in order to reveal the inspirations that the oriental representation of landscape brings to its invention of new poetic forms. In the second part, centered on his experience of writing, we study respectively his perception of the Chinese ideogram, his practice of oriental calligraphy and his adaptation of short Chinese and Japanese poems. From a cross-cultural and comparative perspective, we try to point out some Chinese and Japanese references that also closely associate the sensible experience to the understanding of the spiritual, in order to reveal to what extent Claudel diverges from or is inspired by these sources from the Other, and how the latter lead him to enrich his poetic expression and to accomplish his religious vocation in a literary creation absolutely original

[spa] En las últimas décadas el turismo se ha convertido en uno de los contribuyentes económicos más importantes a nivel mundial. El éxito se mide en función de su contribución al Producto Interno Bruto (PIB) de cada país, número de turistas que ingresan, disponibilidad de camas de hotel, promedio de ocupación y gasto diario del turista. De la mano de estos datos se formulan las estrategias de planificación y promoción de los diferentes destinos, dándole prioridad a los destinos más exitosos y segmentos más practicados. Poco espacio se ha dejado para visualizar al turismo como lo que es, un fenómeno humano que se ha mantenido a lo largo de la historia. Los cambios en la forma de viajar que dieron lugar al nacimiento del turismo como hoy se conoce se deben a cambios en la sociedad. En un inicio viajar respondía a las necesidades básicas del ser humano; posteriormente el motivo fue visitar santuarios dedicados a las representaciones religiosas más antiguas, motivación que se ha mantenido a lo largo del tiempo y cuyas variaciones han sido respuesta a la forma de cómo las personas y luego los turistas, perciben y practican su espiritualidad y religiosidad. Hoy día el turista viaja por una diversidad de motivos que van desde lo más tangible posible, como las compras y negocios, pasando por una presión social de estatus, hasta llegar a formas más intangibles como una peregrinación o un retiro espiritual holístico alrededor del mundo. La presente investigación parte de este segundo grupo de turistas. En la presente tesis se desarrolló inicialmente un análisis que integró a la antropología, la sociología, la geografía y la psicología, y se incluyó la religión y su vinculación con el turismo. Lo anterior permitió contar con una plataforma científica sólida que facilitó, a lo largo de la investigación, la comprensión del fenómeno turístico desde una perspectiva más completa y orientada al tema central de investigación. La tesis planteó al turismo espiritual como una manera de dar respuesta a este grupo de turistas que son producto de una sociedad de contrastes religiosos y que a su vez ha dado paso a una secularización. Para ello se propuso validar si los turistas de hoy en día buscan re-crearse, re-conectarse consigo mismos a través de viajar a lugares con alto valor espiritual, sean estos de base religiosa o no. Con el objetivo de validar las hipótesis y objetivos planteados se estableció una metodología aplicada a Guatemala, en donde se seleccionaron tres sujetos de estudio por su alto valor sagrado y por ser al mismo tiempo destinos turísticos consolidados. Los elementos que fueron evaluados a lo largo de la investigación y que forman parte del escenario del turismo espiritual fueron: las motivaciones que hacen que los turistas visiten este tipo de lugares; el paisaje como espacio geográfico sagrado; y el turismo de bienestar como una forma de turismo asociada al turismo espiritual. Se propuso una definición del turismo espiritual que integrara los elementos planteados en el trabajo de campo, así como lo encontrado en la revisión bibliográfica. Dado que la temática es innovadora, requerirá de futuras investigaciones que fortalezcan el concepto. La definición se creó a partir de lo recabado durante la investigación ya que dentro del escenario turístico se cuenta con definiciones claras tanto para turismo religioso como para turismo de bienestar. Tal y como se describió a lo largo de la investigación, el turismo espiritual y la práctica de encontrarse a sí mismo a través de los viajes no es un concepto definido. Algunos autores afirman que el turismo espiritual es el resultado de una sociedad secular que rechaza la postura religiosa, mientras que otros opinan lo contrario. Independientemente de si practican o no una religión en específico, de si cuentan con una espiritualidad holística o si simplemente son turistas con necesidad de conocer y experimentar, los turistas buscan estos espacios geográficos sagrados con el objetivo de re-encontrarse, lo cual validó la hipótesis principal de la investigación. Tal y como se planteó en su momento, la investigación promueve el análisis de los siguientes conceptos: conexión espiritual, conexión con la naturaleza, meditación, oración, encuentro consigo mismo, plenitud y atmosfera del lugar, constituyéndose estos en los nuevos motivantes de viaje para un grupo de turistas
[cat] Durant les darreres dècades, el turisme s’ha convertit en un dels components econòmics més importants a nivell mundial. El seu èxit es mesura en funció de la seva contribució al Producte Interior Brut (PIB) de cada país, el nombre de turistes que entren, disponibilitat de llits d’hotel, ocupació mitjana i despesa diària del turista. A partir d’aquestes dades es formulen les estratègies de planificació i promoció de les diferents destinacions, donant prioritat als destins més exitosos i segments més practicats. Poc espai ha quedat per visualitzar el trisme cm el que és, un fenomen humà que s’ha mantingut al llarg de la història. Els canvis en la forma de viatjar que originaren el turisme tal com el coneixem avui en dia, són deguts a canvis en la societat. A un inici, responia a les necessitats bàsiques del ser humà; posteriorment el motiu era visitar santuaris dedicats a les representacions religioses més antigues; de fet, aquest motiu s’ha conservat al llarg del temps, presentant variacions com a resposta a la forma com les persones, i desprès els turistes, perceben i practiquen la seva espiritualitat i religiositat. Avui en dia, el turista viatja per molts de motius, que van des de lo més tangible, com són les compres i negocis, passant per una pressió social que genera un “status”, fins arribar a la forma més intangible del viatge com pot ser un pelegrinatge o un retir espiritual holístic al voltant del món. La present recerca parteix d’aquest segon grup de turistes. Inicialment, desenvoluparem un anàlisi que integrà les ciències següents: antropologia, sociologia, geografia, psicologia, endemés d’incloure la religió i la seva vinculació amb el turisme. Fruit d’aquest anàlisi es va tenir una plataforma científica sòlida, que va facilitat al llarg de la recerca la comprensió del fenomen turístic des d’una perspectiva més completa i orientada al tema central de la recerca. La tesis va plantejar al turisme espiritual com una forma de donar resposta a aquests grups de turistes que són el producte d’una societat de contrastos religiosos i que, al mateix temps, ha donat pas a una secularització d’aquesta. . Per això la intenció fou validar si els turistes de l’actualitat cerquen re-crear-se o re-connectar-se amb ells mateixos, mitjançant el viatjar als llocs d’alt valor espiritual, siguin aquests de base religiosa o no. Amb l’objectiu de validar la hipòtesis i els objectius plantejats, s’establí una metodologia aplicada a Guatemala, país del qual es seleccionaren tres temes d’estudi, pel seu alt valor sagrat i per ser, al mateix temps, destinacions turístiques consolidades. Els elements que foren avaluats al llarg de la recerca i que formen part de l’escenari del turisme espiritual foren: les motivacions que permeten que els turistes visiten aquesta tipologia de destinacions; el paisatge com espai geogràfic sagrat, i el turisme del benestar com una forma de turisme associada al turisme espiritual. S’ha proposat una definició del turisme espiritual que integri els elements plantejats en el treball de camp, així com les coses descobertes en la revisió bibliogràfica. Donat que la temàtica és innovadora exigirà futures recerques que re-afirmin dit concepte. La definició es creà a partir de les informacions recollides durant la recerca, ja que en el camp del turisme es tenen definicions clares tant del turisme religiós com del turisme del benestar. Tal com hem descrit al llarg de la recerca, no hem trobat un concepte definit respecte al turisme espiritual i la pràctica de trobar-se amb un mateix mitjançant els viatges. Alguns autors afirmen que el turisme espiritual és el resultat d’una societat secularitzada que rebutja la postura religiosa, mentre que d’altres opinen el contrari. Els turistes cerquen aquests espais geogràfics sagrats, independentment de si practiquen o no una religió en concret, si tenen una religiositat holística o simplement són turistes que necessiten conèixer i experimentar, amb l’objectiu de retrobar-se, la qual cosa ha premés validar la hipòtesis principal de la recerca. Tal com es va plantejar al seu moment, la recerca promou l’anàlisi dels següents conceptes: connexió espiritual, connexió amb la natura, meditació, pregària, trobada amb si mateix, plenitud, i l’atmosfera del lloc. Sent aquests els nous motivadors del viatge per un grup de turistes
[eng] In recent decades, tourism has become one of the most important economic contribuitors worldwide. Success is measured in terms of its contribuition to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of each country, number of tourist entering, availability of hotel beds, average occupancy and daily tourist spending. Hand in hand with these data, the planning and promotion strategies of the different destinations are formulated giving priority to the most fated destinations and most practiced segments. Little space has been left to visualize tourism as what it is, a human phenomenon that has been maintained throughout history. The changes in the form of travel that gave rise to the birth of tourism as it is known today, is due to changes in society. In the beginning it responded to the basic needs of the human being; later the reason was to visit shrines dedicated to the oldest religious representations. In fact, this motive has been maintained over time presenting variations in response to the way of people, and then tourists, perceive and practice their spirituality and religiosity. Nowadays the tourist travels for a diversity of motives that go from the most tangible possible as they are shopping and businesses, going through a social pressure that generates status, until reaching the most intangible form of the trip as it can be a pilgrimage or an holistic retreat around the world. The present research is part of this second group of tourists. Initially, an analysis was developed in order to integrated the following sciences: Anthropology, Sociology, Geography, Psychology, as well as religion and its linkage with tourism. This allowed to have a solid scientific platform, which facilitated throughout the research the understanding of the tourist phenomenon from a more complete perspective and, oriented to the central topic of the thesis. The thesis raised spiritual tourism as a way to respond to this group of tourists who are the product of a society of religious contrasts and which in turn gave way to a secularization of it. To this end, it was proposed to validate whether today's tourists seek to re-create, re-connect with themselves, through traveling to places of high spiritual value, whether religiously based or not. In order to validate the hypothesis and objectives, a methodology was applied to Guatemala, a country where three study subjects were selected, for their high sacred value and for being consolidated tourist destinations at the same time. The elements that were evaluated throughout the research and that are part of the spiritual tourism scenario were: the motivations that make tourists visit these types of places; the landscape as a sacred geographical space; and wellness tourism as a form of tourism associated with spiritual tourism. A definition of spiritual tourism was proposed that would integrate the elements raised in the field work, as well as what was found in the bibliographical review. Given that the theme is innovative, it will require future research to support the strengthening of this concept. The definition was created from what was collected during the investigation, since within the tourist scenario there are clear definitions for both religious tourism and wellness tourism. As it was described throughout the investigation, what refers to spiritual tourism and the practice of finding oneself through travel is not a defined concept. It is affirmed by some authors that spiritual tourism is the result of a secular society that rejects the religious position, while others believe otherwise. Regardless of whether or not they practice a specific religion, or if they have a holistic spirituality or are simply tourists with a need to know and experience, tourists look for these sacred geographic spaces in order to re-encounter, which validated the main hypothesis of the investigation. As it was raised at the time, the research promotes the analysis of the following concepts: spiritual connection; connection with nature; meditation, prayer, encounter with oneself; plenitude and atmosphere of the place. Constituted these in the new motivators of travel for a group of tourists.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2006.
Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 52-53).

碩士
國立高雄師範大學
美術學系
106
Between the spirit and the landscape, it seems that it is the internal appearance of the inner self to the outer landscape, the two-way perception of spiritual emotion and the natural environment. We look at the external environment from our own eyes. What do we watch? What has changed from the outside to itself and what has it felt? The change of things has two sides. Through different people, events, and things, the accumulation of experience in life forms the nutrients of creation. Through artistic creation, it transforms from a real natural landscape into an internal memory. After a period of brewing, Integrate inner perception and construct works with spiritual landscape meaning. This article will discuss creation from 2015-2017, opening the creative context through landscape and its own internal and external perceptions. From the very beginning, the motive for creation begins with the work Breathing, depicting the roadside scenery in Taiwan and opening up the real landscape. The pursuit of the essence achieves a balance between the external environment and the state of mind. From discussing the romantic landscape painters Frederick and Turner, analyzing the spirit of landscape passion and the overall atmosphere of the picture, the moment of recreating the scenery, and opening the idea of using the abstract expression method in the future. Plato's concept of rationality explains how the landscape is reproduced to us. The individual's perception of color sensitivity, in addition to highlighting the external changes in the natural environment, also expresses the power of mental emotions. The world is not a lack of beauty but a lack of discovery. Life is full of scenery. Through keen observation, the landscape is viewed as a whole, and artistic creation uses new perspectives to present a new atmosphere.

This dissertation argues that spiritual and religious worldviews (i.e. Mexican Catholicism, indigenous spiritualities, and popular religion) have historically intersected with social and political realities in the development of Mexican origin communities of the United States. More specifically, as creative writers from these communities have endeavored to express and represent Mexican American experience, they have consistently engaged these intersections of the spiritual and the material. While Chicano/a criticism has often overlooked, and in some ways dismissed, the significant role which spiritual and religious discourses have played in the political development of Mexican American communities, I examine how the works of creative writers pose important questions about the role of religious faith and spirituality in healing the wounds of social violence. By placing literary texts in conversation with scholarship from multiple disciplines, this project links literary narratives to their historical, social, and political frameworks, and ultimately endeavors to situate literary production as an expressive cultural product. Historical and regional in approach, the dissertation examines diverse literary narratives penned by writers of Mexican descent between the 1930s and the current decade. Selected textual pairings recall pivotal moments and relations in the history of Mexico, America, and their shared geographical borderlands. Through the lens of religion and spirituality, a broad array of social discourses emerges, including: gender and sexuality, landscape and memory, nation-formation, race and ethnicity, popular traditions, and material culture.
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The subject of this work is to describe czech mountains as a qualitatively different phenomenon from most of the other territory of the Czech Republic. The work is divided into four chapters. The first two chapters outline the theoretical background and methodology. On the basis of this methodology, the other two chapters analyse the landscape of the Bohemian Forest on three levels: natural, cultural and symbolic. The conclusion summarises the findings of field research carried out on the "Vintířova Stezka". Keywords: cultural representation, landscape, mountain ranges, spiritual dimension, cultural ecology

This practicum focuses on developing a deeper knowledge about stress and our external environments. It is directed towards the profession of Landscape Architecture, and healthcare facilities including professionals. It outlines critical information about stress: how stress affects people’s physical, emotional, mental health and well-being, and how landscape architects are able to mitigate different types of stress through the design and use of our exterior environments, offering respite and healing in times of great need. Stress reveals and manifests itself in numerous ways. It has become a major problem within our society, much bigger than people care to acknowledge or believe. Landscape Architects have the ability to help people reflect upon the stress that they are under by creating spaces that inevitably sooth their ‘selves’. Through the profession and subsequent work of Landscape Architects the awareness of stress can be addressed, helping bring respite and relieve tension and stress, whether large or small, which is extremely critical in today’s society. Through the use of gardens and exterior spaces designed with stress-relief in mind, we will be able to decrease hospital stays, drug use and the overall amount of money used by medical institutions and governments, while decreasing the progression and succession of illness and diseases related to and accentuated or propagated by, or due to stress. Through this document I will discuss ideas and theories that influence and/or are pertinent to Landscape Architecture and stress, as well as natural elements that should be taken into consideration when starting to design or when planning a design that will be situated within medical institutions and healthcare facilities, but not limited to, and including any other exterior environment (such as a backyard). It will also outline design elements which emphasize appropriate ways to design these spaces and places responsibly and sensitively. By understanding how people respond to stress, Landscape Architects may be able to design appropriate, beautiful spaces. Initially this practicum was directed towards designing beautiful, meaningful gardens for the sick and/or dying, as well as for the families, visitors, and employees within healthcare settings. It has evolved, to include how our brains and bodies are physiologically affected by spaces and places that we encounter, and how these spaces either reduce or increase stress responses within us, therefore, increasing or decreasing our ability to heal, be healthy, and feel well. Stress is a major condition that is often “down-played”, ignored, or not understood within society. It is in fact a very serious condition / illness that has the ability to dictate the outcome of our physical and mental performances, and especially our health and well-being. Landscape Architects have the ability and responsibility to contribute positively to people’s bodily reactions to spaces: exterior and interior.