Spirit of place (or soul) refers to the unique, distinctive and cherished aspects of a place; often those celebrated by artists and writers, but also those cherished in folk tales,

festival A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...

s and celebrations. It is thus as much in the invisible weave of culture ( stories, art, memories, beliefs, histories, etc.) as it is the tangible physical aspects of a place (

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, historical ...

s, boundaries,

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

s, woods, architectural style,

rural crafts Rural crafts refers to the traditional crafts production that is carried on, simply for everyday practical use, in the agricultural countryside. Once widespread and commonplace, the survival of some rural crafts is threatened.Mapping Heritage Craf ...

styles, pathways, views, and so on) or its

interpersonal In social psychology, an interpersonal relation (or interpersonal relationship) describes a social association, connection, or affiliation between two or more people. It overlaps significantly with the concept of social relations, which are ...

aspects (the presence of relatives,

friends ''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane (producer), David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting List of Friends episodes, ten seasons. With an ensemble cast ...

and kindred spirits, and the like). Often the term is applied to a rural or a relatively unspoiled or regenerated place — whereas the very similar term

sense of place The term sense of place refers to a multidimensional, complex construct used to characterize the relationship between people and spatial settings. It is a characteristic that some geographic places have and some do not, while to others it is a f ...

would tend to be more domestic, urban, or

suburban A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

in tone. For instance, one could logically apply 'sense of place' to an urban high street; noting the

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

, the width of the

road A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. Th ...

s and pavements, the plantings, the style of the

shop Shop or shopping may refer to: Business and commerce * A casual word for a commercial establishment or for a place of business * Machine shop, a workshop for machining *"In the shop", referring to a car being at an automotive repair shop * Reta ...

-fronts, the

street furniture Street furniture is a collective term for objects and pieces of equipment installed along streets and roads for various purposes. It includes bench (furniture), benches, traffic barriers, bollards, post boxes, phone boxes, streetlamps, traffic ...

, and so on, but one could not really talk about the 'spirit of place' of such an essentially urban and commercial environment. However, an urban area that looks faceless or neglected to an adult may have deep meaning in

children's street culture Children's street culture refers to the cumulative culture created by young children. Collectively, this body of knowledge is passed down from one generation of urban children to the next, and can also be passed between different groups of chil ...

. The

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

term for spirit of place was

Genius loci In classical Roman religion, a ''genius loci'' (: ''genii locorum'') was the protective spirit of a place. It was often depicted in religious iconography as a figure holding attributes such as a cornucopia, patera (libation bowl), or snake. Man ...

, by which it is sometimes still referred. This has often been historically envisaged as a guardian

animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Biology, biological Kingdom (biology), kingdom Animalia (). With few exceptions, animals heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, ...

or a small supernatural being ( puck,

fairy A fairy (also called fay, fae, fae folk, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, generally described as anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic, found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Cel ...

elf An elf (: elves) is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic peoples, Germanic folklore. Elves appear especially in Norse mythology, North Germanic mythology, being mentioned in the Icelandic ''Poetic Edda'' and the ''Prose Edda'' ...

, and the like) or a

ghost In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...

. In the developed world these beliefs have been, for the most part, discarded. A new layer of less-embodied superstition on the subject, however, has arisen around

ley lines Ley lines () are straight alignments drawn between various historic structures, prehistoric sites and prominent landmarks. The idea was developed in early 20th-century Europe, with ley line believers arguing that these alignments were recognis ...

feng shui Feng shui ( or ), sometimes called Chinese geomancy, is a traditional form of geomancy that originated in ancient China and claims to use energy forces to harmonize individuals with their surrounding environment. The term ''feng shui'' mean ...

and similar concepts, on the one hand, and urban leftover spaces, such as back alleys or gaps between buildings in some North-American downtown areas, on the other hand. The western cultural movements of

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

and

Neo-romanticism The term neo-romanticism is used to cover a variety of movements in philosophy, literature, music, painting, and architecture, as well as social movements, that exist after and incorporate elements from the era of Romanticism. It has been used ...

are often deeply concerned with creating cultural forms that 're-enchant the land', in order to establish or re-establish a spirit of place. Modern earth art (sometimes called environment art) artists such as

Andy Goldsworthy Andy Goldsworthy (born 25 July 1956) is an English sculptor, photographer, and environmentalist who produces site-specific sculptures and land art situated in natural or urban settings. Early life Goldsworthy was born in Cheshire on 25 July ...

have explored the contribution of natural/ephemeral sculpture to spirit of place. Many indigenous and tribal cultures around the world are deeply concerned with spirits of place in their

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

.Opp, J. (2011) "Public history and the fragments of place: Archaeology, history and heritage site development in southern Alberta,"
Rethinking History
' 15: 241-267 Spirits of place are explicitly recognized by some of the world's main religions:

Shinto , also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religions, East Asian religion by Religious studies, scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as ...

has its

Kami are the Deity, deities, Divinity, divinities, Spirit (supernatural entity), spirits, mythological, spiritual, or natural phenomena that are venerated in the traditional Shinto religion of Japan. ''Kami'' can be elements of the landscape, forc ...

which may incorporate spirits of place; and the

Dvarapala A Dvarapala or Dvarapalaka (Sanskrit, "door guard"; IAST: ' ) is a door or gate guardian often portrayed as a warrior or fearsome giant, usually armed with a weapon - the most common being the Gada (mace), ''gada'' (mace). The dvarapala statue i ...

s and

Lokapala (, ), Sanskrit, Pāli, and Lhasa_Tibetan, Tibetan for "guardian of the world", has different uses depending on whether it is found in a Hinduism, Hindu or Buddhism, Buddhist context. In Hinduism, ''lokapāla'' refers to the Guardians of the ...

s in

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...

Vajrayana ''Vajrayāna'' (; 'vajra vehicle'), also known as Mantrayāna ('mantra vehicle'), Guhyamantrayāna ('secret mantra vehicle'), Tantrayāna ('tantra vehicle'), Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, is a Mahāyāna Buddhism, Mahāyāna Buddhis ...

and Bonpo traditions.

References

External links

* *
Common Ground (UK)
{{Environmental humanities The arts Cultural geography Psychogeography Landscape design history Gardening Landscape architecture Environmental design

See also

References

External links