|
|
Article: Sacred and Secular Landscape Symbolism at Mount Taylor, New Mexico.
- Article from:
- Journal of the Southwest
- Article date:
- December 22, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 University of Arizona. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Mountains are spiritually and culturally significant landscapes that evoke emotions ranging from awe and fear to reverence and wonder. Towering crags, violent storms, rare flora and fauna, snow-capped peaks, and serrated ridges all contribute to a mystical sense of the sublime. Throughout the world mountains symbolize the center of the cosmos, abodes of deities, temples, pristine wilderness, communal identity, and the fountain of life (Bernbaum 1997). American Indians have held the summits to be sacred for millennia, whereas Western thought has evolved from "mountain gloom to mountain glory" over the past three centuries (Nicolson 1997). Even within the predominantly ...