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B 3.4 Values and the dynamics of landscapes

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B 3.4 Values and the dynamics of landscapes Empty B 3.4 Values and the dynamics of landscapes

Post  TERCUD Tue Jun 17, 2008 4:13 pm

"Mental landscapes are loaded with values: religious, aesthetic, but also moral or national. These values play a significant role in the dynamics of landscapes.
The religious reading of landscapes has important consequences. It is often conducive to the opposition between profane and sacred areas. In the sacred areas, everything has to be respected, since its presence results from the action of supranatural beings or transcendental forces. Hence the total preservation of nature in sacred areas: in many religions, holy woods signal them. In the profane zones, on the reverse, people are free to act according to their wishes or whims, since supranatural forces and beings are lacking: the situation is completely different.
In many cases, sacredness is more diffuse – and sometimes, discontinuous: the sacrality of the Earth is general, at least at some times, which means that an authorization has to be asked from the gods in order to do such or such things; it limits the possibilities of abusing the environment. The study of the French anthropologist Philippe Descola stresses the significance of this type of relation to nature and its role in natural conservation (Descola, 2005).
In purely profane areas, the values which are mainly recognized are economic ones: the fertility of fields is transformed into land values, and the proximity to the centre of a city into prices of landed property.
Aesthetic values act in different ways. The features which confer their attractiveness to environments are fragile: the size, colours and forms of houses, for instance, depend on the preferences of local people, their wealth and the power they have to control their own space. The wish to preserve the harmony of landscapes is expressed through policies of preservation: what is protected is the look of the place. Aesthetic feelings are also translated into land values when the harmony of a rural area, the quality of its building, or the charm of a city attract tourists or people in search of second homes.
The "scientific" interpretations of the landscape which developed since the seventeenth centuries were mainly used to improve their practical purposes: productivity of farming or cattle-raising, quality of housing, road security, etc. With the ecological views which have grown since the end of the nineteenth century, and mainly after 1950, the situation has changed: natural ecosystems enjoy a fundamental property, their resilience, which means that up to a point, they are able to recycle more matter and energy than usual without major disruption. Above this threshold, the situation differs: nature is not able to recover by itself. Hence the need for corrective actions."

(This is an excerpt from the text by Professor Paul Claval “THE IDEA OF LANDSCAPE”)

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