In search of the authentic nation: landscape and national identity in Canada and Switzerland

While the study of nationalism and national identity has flourished in the last decade, little attention has been devoted to the conditions under which natural environments acquire significance in definitions of nationhood. This article examines the identity-forming role of landscape depictions in two polyethnic nation-states: Canada and Switzerland. Two types of geographical national identity are identified. The first – what we call the ‘nationalisation of nature’– portrays zarticular landscapes as expressions of national authenticity. The second pattern – what we refer to as the ‘naturalisation of the nation’– rests upon a notion of geographical determinism that depicts specific landscapes as forces capable of determining national identity. The authors offer two reasons why the second pattern came to prevail in the cases under consideration: (1) the affinity between wild landscape and the Romantic ideal of pure, rugged nature, and (2) a divergence between the nationalist ideal of ethnic homogeneity and the polyethnic composition of the two societies under consideration

Landholding and landscape in Ottoman Cyprus

In Ottoman Cyprus (1571–1878), social organization was based above all on the ownership and exploitation of agricultural land. The social relations, economic processes and daily practices of landowning elites and peasant farmers alike were structured by their relationship with the land. In this article, historical and archaeological data are integrated in order to investigate the development of social organization by focusing on landholding and landscape. In particular, it examines the role, identity and material culture of the new Cypriot/Ottoman elite, the commercialization of agriculture as expressed in the economy and the landscape, and the daily routine experiences of communities in the landscape

Work probability distribution in single molecule experiments

We derive and solve a differential equation satisfied by the probability distribution of the work done on a single biomolecule in a mechanical unzipping experiment. The unzipping is described as a thermally activated escape process in an energy landscape. The Jarzynski equality is recovered as an identity, independent of the pulling protocol. This approach allows one to evaluate easily, by numerical integration, the work distribution, once a few parameters of the energy landscape are known.Comment: To appear on EP

The historical dimension as a guide-tool identification and reading wine landscape character of Mendoza, Argentina

The wine landscape of the province of Mendoza is characterized by an integrating heterogeneity and active, own agricultural production activity dynamism. This is considered as a cultural heritage and a provincial collective redress. This has elements that clarify its nature, understood as the formal manifestation of identity, but others contribute to the trivialization of it. In this context, the research carried out, raised the reflection on how the historical dimension to identify and take a reading of the character of the landscape wine. The historical dimension allows detecting the elements of the character of the landscape and those which are trivializing in a dynamic landscape framework and heterogeneity. In response, resulting from the framework of cultural conservation, it was proposed that the historical dimension of landscape can be used as a guide - tool for analysis.Fil: Manzini Marchesi, Lorena Verónica. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Ciencias Humanas, Sociales y Ambientales; Argentin

Understanding landscape identity in the context of rapid urban change in China

China is one of the most rapidly urbanising countries in the world. In recent years, it has experienced enormous environmental changes, as well as a loss of landscape identity. This paper aims to explore the concept of landscape identity in the context of the overwhelming urbanisation in China. It develops a conceptual framework on landscape identity from different dimensions. Factors are also identified that drive the urban changes with regard to the landscape identity that develops over time. Taking the city of Yantai, a city in Shandong Province, as an example, it is demonstrated how this conceptual framework can be applied to help in the understanding and protection of landscape identity in China

The Making and Remaking of Portland: The Archaeology of Identity and Landscape at the Portland Wharf, Louisville, Kentucky

The town of Portland, Kentucky was founded over 200 years ago as a speculative venture to profit from its advantageous location at the base of the Falls of the Ohio River. The Portland Wharf was the economic and cultural heart of the town. Throughout its history, the community has experienced much change. These changes are visible in the landscape of the Portland Wharf which reflected changes in the community’s identity. Identity and landscape are topics that have been of great interest to archaeologists and this dissertation builds on previous works to examine identity as something that is reflected in the practices of people and can be unconscious, as well as overt. Identity can only become visible through contrast of differing aspects of culture, which is often created by researchers. The landscape is one place where the contrast necessary for making identity visible takes place, as it is where identities can be created, modified, and maintained. This study utilized archaeological, historical, and ethnographic data to examine changes to Portland’s identity and landscape over time. The archaeological analysis of deposits at two house lots at the Portland Wharf has allowed for a reconstruction of Portland’s historic landscape that when compared to that of Louisville created the necessary contrast to expose Portland’s independent identity. This identity was developed amongst Portland’s contentious and symbiotic relationship with Louisville and manifested in the landscape and the way privies were constructed. The process of identity continues present day, as the people of Portland reach into their past to deploy versions of history that are loosely based on events that are no longer materialized in the landscape when their identity is threatened. As the community plans to reanimate the Portland Wharf landscape to create and maintain identities based on the community’s past, archaeologists must recognize their role in the process of identity and I argue that such responsibility can and should be used for activist goals for the good of the community

The challenges, potentials, and experts’ opinions on developing a Malaysian garden identity

As well as generally being considered as symbols of national and country identity, gardens fulfill various functions within society such as being aesthetically beautiful, satisfying human needs, and also functioning as places for various activities. In accordance with this, the Malaysian government in her newly launched National Landscape Policy put forth a vision to achieve “The Most Beautiful Garden Nation” by the year 2020, reflecting a desire to develop a distinctive landscape identity for the country. Due to this, the National Landscape Department of Malaysia suggested developing a garden identity as an indispensable part of this vision because even though the country has great potential in the development of parks and gardens, an exclusive garden identity is still lacking. This paper aims to justify that the development of a garden identity could enhance national and landscape identities for the country. It is also presumed that such development faces several challenges. Moreover, the study intends to highlight Malaysia’s great potential for developing its gardens. A review of existing literature along with Malaysia’s new landscape policy was thus undertaken, and findings were then triangulated by conducting face-to-face interviews with Malaysian local landscape architects. Consequently, the importance of creating a unique garden identity corresponding with Malaysia’s new landscape policy was confirmed. Furthermore, challenges (which mainly relate to political, social, cultural, and economic viewpoints) and potentials for such development were recognised. The results can ultimately be utilised to contribute to the formation of gardens with distinct Malaysian identities

Mapping the Landscape Identity in Tuscany

Il contributo presenta gli esiti della redazione di una cartografia in scala 1:50000, estesa all’intero territorio della Regione Toscana, concepita per descrivere con chiarezza i caratteri di identità del paesaggio regionale. La carta è costruita con una particolare attenzione alla massimizzazione della leggibilità e della espressività visiva, ed è l’esito della elaborazione formalizzata di informazioni disponibili nel sistema informativo istituzionale regionale. Da questo punto di vista è un prodotto che rinnova il repertorio delle tecniche tradizionali di rappresentazione, senza rinunciare a essere un prodotto “aperto”: aggiornabile, verificabile, falsificabile.This paper presents the results of a scale 1:50000-map drafting project. The map will cover the whole territory of Tuscany Region, and has been designed to expressively represent landscape identity. The map is built with special attention to cartographic editing issues; but uses the formal practices employed by institutional geographic information systems. From this point of view the map uses and renews traditional techniques of cartographic representation, continuing to be, in all respects, an updatable, testable and falsifiable product

The shepherd on the hill: comparative notes on English and German romantic landscape painting 1810-1831

The solitary figure in the landscape can be understood in relation to certain, fundamentally Romantic traits – solitude, contemplation, oneness with nature – and is most notably found in the work of Caspar David Friedrich. Less recognised however is the fact that the solitary figure can also be found in the landscape paintings of many English artists of the early nineteenth century, particularly within depictions of commonly held pastoral landscapes. Within the traditional terms of English art history, the landscape genre of this period has also been closely associated with the concept of Romanticism. This paper will study the use of the solitary figure in paintings of open, common field landscape, and will compare two paintings: Caspar David Friedrich’s ‘Landscape with Rainbow (The Shepherd’s Complaint)’ of 1810, and John Sell Cotman’s ‘The Shepherd on the Hill’ of 1831. It will examine the more conventional Romantic resonances of Friedrich’s painting in order to question whether Cotman’s shepherd is a comparative example of Romantic solitude and contemplation, or whether it was more of a prosaic image of a typically English ‘rustic type’ at a time when a particular sense of national identity was emerging that was closely associated with the countryside and country life. From there, it is hoped that we can begin to reconsider the conventional Romantic image of English landscape painting in the first three decades of the nineteenth century