Josh Kraght 10.17.13 Sustainability Dr.

Perkins Essay 2: Defining Landscape Kraght 1

The environment and landscape of this Earth is one that is has always been intriguing to humans for thousands of years. Although we have been living on this planet for so long there are still questions and interesting thoughts as to how humans relate to their environment, or a better way to put it, their landscape. Human relations to their landscape is still a topic that is discussed a lot in college classrooms and all over the world. How do we as humans define landscape? In the Leslie Marmon Silkos writings she defines landscape in a very unique way. The stories she tells and the information that she shared, develops a relationship that humans and their landscape have. She defines landscape as the spiritual connection that humans have to their land. It is more than just seeing the hills, cliffs, plants, and sky. (Marmon Silko 1986.) Landscape is how you adapt, adjust, and use your surroundings. Defining landscape can be such a simple task. We can use the dictionary definition or simply say that it is the land that makes up the Earth. We can also say that it is the land that people live in or the land that surrounds peoples native land. These answers are not wrong but Marmon Silko takes landscape into a much deeper meaning. Similar to Dan Flores essay on Spirit of Place where he explains what it means for people to have a relationship with the landscape and how the people and animals in that landscape determine the spirit of it (Flores 1998.) Defining Landscape is a little different than the Spirit of Place. Marmon Silko grew up a Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico and that is where a lot of her writing is based. She defines landscape in terms of where she is most familiar with which is the deserts of New Mexico. Being a native that

Josh Kraght 10.17.13 Sustainability Dr. Perkins Kraght 2 Marmon Silko is she explains in great detail how she and her family had to use the landscape for everything. The section of Marmon Silkos essay that titles From the Emergence Place begins immediately by explaining how our surrounding landscape is much more than what the eye can see. She explains this by saying A portion of territory the eye can comprehend in a single view does not correctly describe the relationship between the human being and his or her surroundings. (Marmon Silko 1986) Marmon Silko continues on and describes how each of us are individually linked with the land in all different ways. Some people are linked with the plants, others with the mountains. This was one way that the Laguna Pueblo interacted with their landscape. The relationship between the land, humans and animals was one that worked perfectly in beautiful harmony. Each aspect of the landscape helped out each other and understood the importance of the preserving this great land. Another main point that Marmon Silko displays is how the landscape cannot be improved. The ancient people did not tamper with the landscape because they understood that we could not improve it, only make it worse. This topic relates to what Dan Flores was talking about. When Euro-Americans began to explore this wilderness they decided to seemingly destroy the land by industrializing it and using its nonrenewable resources (Flores 1998). The Laguna Pueblo Natives understood this

Josh Kraght 10.17.13 Sustainability Dr. Perkins Kraght 3 concept unlike the Euro-Americans and it is probably because they had different definitions of landscape. The next piece of Marmon Silkos writing shifts to a very interesting form of defining landscape. She begins to write on how stories told by her family were passed down from generation to generation so they could continue passing on these stories. Whether you were young or old, you were required to understand the stories. This was very interesting because she makes it sound like the generations before here have left a legacy. This required a demand of respect of these stories which often times had to do with the landscape. The history and legacy of the landscape are very important to the Laguna Pueblo Natives. Today people do not respect the history of the landscape which causes an overall lack of respect of the landscape. The history of the land is another way of defining landscape. To wrap Marmon Silks essay up she gives a lot of information on her background and shares a lot about her family. The overwhelming definition of landscape that Marmon Silko states is For them, a persons value lies in how that person interacts with other people, how that person behaves toward the animals and the earth. (Marmon Silko 1986) The landscape is so much more to Silko than the physical land surrounding people. It is how they interact with the animals, plants, and even other people. The Laguna Pueblo Native people had a very deep and personal definition of landscape. They understood that the land provided for them and without the land they would not be able to live. If the rain did not come then they would not be able to grow plants and that would affect how

Josh Kraght 10.17.13 Sustainability Dr. Perkins

Kraght 4 they lived their life. They respected the landscape around them and understood what it meant to their future. To make a clear definition of landscape after reading Marmon Silkos essay is not easy. There are so many different ways of interpreting her definition but I think there is a definition that can be understood pretty clearly. The definition is that landscape is more than the physical attributes around us, it is the intellectual and spiritual relationship that we have with the animals, plants and land surrounding the place where we live. Marmon Silko has a very unique perspective of landscape because of where and how she grew up, but her understanding of the landscape is one that should be considered by everybody.

Josh Kraght 10.17.13 Sustainability Dr. Perkins

Works Cited Marmon Silko, Leslie. Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit. Antaeus: Autumn 1986

Flores, Dan. Spirit of Place in the American West. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press 1998. 31-8.