Academic symposium on the influence of the sacred in the elaboration of landscapes

On the occasion of the publication of the book ‘Sacrée nature’ (PUPS, 2017) a symposium on the influence of the sacred in the making of landscapes was held in the Museum Quai Branly, Orleans (France).  The participants included: Bertrand Sajaloli, geographer, of the University of Orleans, Etienne Grésillon, geographer, of the Paris-Diderot university, Anna Caiozzo, historian, of the Paris-Diderot University, Lionel Obadia, anthropologist of the University of Lyon II, Jean-Louis Yengué, director of the Department of Geography, of the University of F. Rabelais, Tours, Sylvie Guichard-Anguis, geographer and japonologist, from the National Council for Scientific Research (CNRS).

The colloquium was structured around two questions: What processes are those that turn a particular landscape into a sacred? What are the links between natural landscapes, religions and beliefs?

This colloquium followed the thread of a previous one, entitled “Sacred nature, sacred landscapes”, held in the same city on January 22-24, 2009, where religious events and their implications in the Representations and management of natural environments. the sources of the sacred were revealed in the perceptions of nature and the landscapes in different historical periods and in different geographies, and the practices and representations in the old polytheistic beliefs (Greek, Roman and Egyptian) were approached, in the animist and the monotheist religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam).