Sacred Gardens and Landscapes: Ritual and Agency (Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the History of Landscape Architecture) [Paperback]

Michel Conan (Editor), Maria Elena Bernal-Garcia (Contributor), Pierre Bonnechere (Contributor), Sarah Bonnemaison (Contributor), Claude Calame (Contributor), Laura Cameron (Contributor), Giorgio Galletti (Contributor), David Matless (Contributor), Richard Price (Contributor), Behula Shah (Contributor), Patrick R. Stanley-Baker (Contributor), Michel Vieillard-Baron (Contributor), Angel Julian Garcia Zambrano (Contributor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0884023052 | ISBN-13: 978-0884023050 | Publication Date: June 30, 2007

Studies of rituals in sacred gardens and landscapes offer tantalizing insights into the significance of gardens and landscapes in the societies of India, ancient Greece, Pre-Columbian Mexico, medieval Japan, post-Renaissance Europe, and America. Sacred gardens and landscapes engaged their visitors into three specific modes of agency: as anterooms spurring encounters with the netherworld; as journeys through mystical lands; and as a means of establishing a sense of locality, metaphorically rooting the dweller's own identity in a well-defined part of the material world. Each section of this book is devoted to one of these forms of agency. Together the essays reveal a profound cultural significance of gardens previously overlooked by studies of garden styles.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Gardens reveal the relationship between culture and nature, yet within the substantial library of garden literature, Sacred Gardens and Landscapes is among the few to focus on what the garden means in the spirit realm...Undeniably, Sacred Gardens and Landscapes is a magnificent compendium about a subject address by few writers: the mystical dimension of gardens.
--Dorothea Bedigian (Plant Science Bulletin )

About the Author

Michel Conan is the former Director of Garden and Landscape Studies, Dumbarton Oaks.

Claude Calame is Directeur d'Études, L'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.

Richard Price is Dittman Professor of American Studies and Professor of Anthropology and History at College of William and Mary in Virginia.

Product Details

• Paperback: 306 pages
• Publisher: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection (June 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0884023052
• ISBN-13: 978-0884023050
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 9.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #684,098 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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