Sacred Spaces: Mapping the Edges of Knowing

List of Course Readings

Introduction and Course Overview

Joel R. Brereton, Sacred Space, in the Encyclopedia of Religion, vol 11, 526-535
Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane, Chapter 1

Mazumdar S., 2004, Religion and Place Attachment: A Study of Sacred Places, Journal of
Environmental Psychology 24(3):385-397.

Cognitive Models and Mental Maps

Johnathan Smith, Map is not Territory: Studies in the Histories of Religions, Chapter 4, The
Wobbling Pivot.

Yi-Fu Tuan, Sacred Place; Exploration of an Idea, in Karl Butzer, ed. Dimensions of Human
Geography

Landscapes, Waterscapes, and Skyscapes

Selections from Strang, Veronica, and Andrew Gardner, eds., 2006, Special Issue: Fluidscapes,
Worldviews: Environment, Culture, Religion 10(2):147293.

Mircea Eliade, The Sacredness of Nature and Cosmic Religion

Gerardus van der Leeuw, Religion in Essence and Manifestation, Chapter 1, Sacred Space

Weightman, Barbara A., 1996, Sacred Landscapes and the Phenomenon of Light,
The Geographical Review 86(1):59-71.

Selections from Flood, Gavin, ed., 1999, Beyond Phenomenology: Rethinking the Study of
Religion , New York,NY: Cassell.

Gatta, John, 2004, Rare and Delectable Places: Thoreaus Imagination of Sacred Space at
Walden, Making Nature Sacred: Literature, Religion, and Environment in America from the
Puritans to the Present, New York, NY: Oxford University Press, Ch. 6, pp. 127-142.

Dearborn, David S.P., Matthew T. Seddon, and Brian Bauer, 1998, The Sactuary of Titicaca:
Where the Sun Returns to Earth, Latin American Antiquity 9(3):240-258.

Foltz, Richard C., 2005, Water in Islam, ERN 2:1714-1716.

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Geffen, Joel, 2005, Trees as Religious Architecture, ERN 2:1656-1659

Shelters of Place: Forest, Mountain, River, Steppe, Desert, Cave

(From Platos Khora to Digital Social Space)

Plato, Khora

Richard H. Jackson and Roger Henrie, Perceptions of Sacred Space, Journal of Cultural
Geography 3, 1983

Harold W. Turner, From Temple to Meetinghouse: the theology and phenomenology of places of
worship, 1979, 278-301

Hirschfeld, C., 1990, Sacred Places, Archaeology

43(1):42-49.

Sacred Geographies in Canada

(From the Artic to Arena)

Davy, Barbara Jane, 2005, Nature Religion, ERN 2:1173-

1175.

Walker, Deward, 2005, Sacred Geography in Native North America, ERN 2:1448-
1451.

Deloria, Vine, Jr., 1994, Sacred Places and Moral Responsibility,

God is Red: A Native View of Religion, Golden, CO: Fulcrum, pp. 267-
282.

Mindscapes

Sacred Rituals and Rites of Passage

(From Aboriginal Dreamtime to the Tattoo Parlor)

Hornberg, A., 1994, Environmentalism, Ethnicity, and Sacred Places: Reflections on

Modernity, Discourse, and Power, Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology
31(3):245-267.
Prufer, Keith M., 2006, Cosmology and Sacred Landscapes, Encyclopedia of Anthropology
, H. James Birx, editor, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications 2:573-
575.

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Selections from Olupona, Jacob K., ed., 2004, Beyond Primitivism: Indigenous Religions and
Modernity, New York, NY: Routledge.

Biolsi, Thomas, 2005, Imagined Geographies: Sovereignty, Indigenous Space, and American
Indian Struggle, American Ethnologist 32(2):239-259.

Sacred in the Everyday

(From the Boring to the Repetition of the New)

Michel Leiris, Sacred in Everyday Life The College of Sociology, 1937-39, ed. Denis Hollier,
1988

Robert Orsi, Everyday Miracles: The Study of Lived Religion, in Lived Religion in America,
Princeton, 1997

York, Michael, 2001, New Age Commodification and Appropriation of Spirituality,

Journal of Contemporary Religion 16(3):361-372.

Selections from Casey, Edward S., 1993, Getting Back into Place: Toward a Renewed
Understanding of the Place-World, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Inscapes

Sacred Pilgrimages, Jerusalem, Mecca, Graceland

(From Chaucers Canterbury Tales to Saint Elvis)

Selections from Canterbury Tales

Selections from Davidison, Linda Kay, and David M . Gitlitz, eds., 2002, Pilgrimage From the
Ganges to Graceland: An Encyclopedia , Santa Barbara, CA

James, W.C., 1999, Sacred Places, Sacred Spaces: The Geography of Pilgrimage, Studies in
Religion 28(4):828-529

Selections from Barber, Richard, 1991, Pilgrimages. Rochester, NY: The Boydell Press
Selections from Morinis, Alan, ed., 1992, Sacred Journeys: The Anthropology of Pilgrimage ,
New York, NY: Greenwood Press

Underworldscapes, Heavenscapes, and Utopia

Imaginative Geographies, Heaven, Earth and Underworld

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(From Hades and Gehena Through Dantes Divine Comedy)

Selections from Dantes Divine Comedy

Selections from Hirsch, Eric, and Michael OHanlon, eds., 1995, The Anthropology of
Landscape: Perspectives on Place and Space , Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.

Eck, Diana L., 1998, The Imagined Landscape: Patterns in the Construction of Hindu Sacred
Geography, Contributions to Indian Sociology n.s. 32(2):165-188.

Cityscapes

Sacred Markers of Memory in the City

(From the Cemetery and Sublime Monuments to 7-11)

Michel DeCerteaus Walking the City.

Callewaert, D., 2004, Sacred Places: Jerusalem, Lourdes, and Shopping Malls, Volkskunde
105(1):101-103.

Earthscapes

Sacred Ecologies and Corporate Wastelands

(From El Garamacho to the Garbage Dumps at the End of the Word)

Oelschlaegers , Cosmos and Wilderness: A postmodern Wilderness Philosophy

Heidegger, Building, Dwelling, Thinking in Basic Writings.

Selections from Swan, James A., ed., 1991, The Power of Place: Sacred Ground in Natural and
Human Environments , Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House/Quest Books.

Modern Reception of Sacred Spaces

Selections from Tobias, Michael, and Georgianne Cowan, eds., 1996, The Soul of Nature:
Celebrating the Spirit of the Earth , New York, NY: Continuum

Selections from Wade Davis, Wayfinders

Selections from Old Man and the Sea
Selections from Moby Dick