High Places Cultural Geographies of Mountains, Ice and Science

by Cosgrove, Denis; della Dora, Veronica

• ISBN13: 9781845116163
• ISBN10: 184511616X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-11-15
• Publisher: I. B. Tauris

Summary

High places-be they mountain peaks or the vast expanses of the polar latitudes-have always captured the human imagination. Inaccessible, extreme, they are commonly invested with awe and reverence, as places of physical challenge, intense experience. Increasingly, they are also treated as unique locations for science. High Places explores the fascinating geographies of these special environments, revealing how senses are challenged, objectivities exposed, cultural assumptions laid bare. Whether walking the summit of Pico de Orizaba, the fourth highest volcano in the northern hemisphere; recounting the tale of the American explorer Charles Wilkes, charged with "immoral mapping" in Antarctica; or exploring the 200,000 year old Greenland ice core; the international contributors reveal the richness and significance of these unique locations. Embracing Europe, Asia, North and Central America, Antarctica and the Arctic, High Places will interest geographers, historians of science, and those interested in polar/mountain studies, landscape, culture and environment.

Author Biography

The late Denis Cosgrove was Alexander von Humboldt Professor of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. His recent books include Geography and Vision: Seeing, Imagining and Representing the World (I.B.Tauris, 2008); Apollo’s Eye: A Cartographic Genealogy of the Earth in the Western Imagination (2001); and, as editor, Mappings (1999).

Veronica della Dora is Lecturer in Geography at the University of Bristol.

Table of Contents

Illustrations	p. vii
Acknowledgements	p. xi
Contributors	p. xiii
Introduction: High Places	p. 1
Science and Formal Knowledge in High Places
Walking in Circles: Cognition and Science in High Places	p. 19
High Latitudes
The Ends of the Earth: Narrating Scott, Amundsen and Antarctica	p. 33
Climates of Sight: Mistaken Visibilities, Mirages and 'Seeing Beyond' in Antarctica	p. 48
Core Matters: Greenland, Denver and the GISP2 Ice Core	p. 64
High Altitudes
Mountains: Between Pure Reason and Embodied Experience Philippe Buache and Alexander von Humboldt	p. 87
Domesticating High Places: Mount Athos: Botanical 'Garden of the Virgin'	p. 105
Astronomers at Altitude: Mountain Geography and the Cultivation of Scientific Legitimacy	p. 126
Local Knowledge and Science in High Places
Stewards of the Mountains: The Poetics and Politics of Local Knowledge in the Valaisan Alps	p. 147
Sea Ice Mapping: Ontology, Mechanics and Human Rights at the Ice Floe Edge	p. 162
Canada Day in Resolute: Performance, Ritual, and the Nation in an Inuit Community	p. 178
Paektudaegan: Science and Colonialism, Memory and Mapping in Korean High Places	p. 196
Afterword: 'The Unhandselled Globe'	p. 216
Endnotes	p. 227
Index	p. 261
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