Rivers, Mountains, Sky and Sea

Rivers, Mountains, Sky and Sea: The Materiality of Spirit and Place explores the many ways that human lives are shaped through association with the total environment - with land, sea and sky. At a time when environmental issues are top of the global agenda it is essential to understand how nature is imagined, how natural spaces are used and represented, and how we attribute value to the built environment. The chapters in this book are all based on material originally presented at a conference at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. They offer a timely reminder of the essential role that the natural world plays in determining how lives can be lived, drawing on a rich variety of locations and cultures. Together they demonstrate how environmental relationships are have always been fundamental to the creation of both sacred and mundane cultural spaces and places. In doing so, they form a celebration of people's relationships and conceptions of the world they dwell with and provide a reminder of our fundamental reliance on worldly materials. The book is aimed both at the general reader, along with students of ecology and the environment.