Landscape ‘raising’ a person blends literal nurture with spiritual teaching
Evidence
I once heard Evon Peter—a Gwich’in man, a father, a husband, an environmental activist, and Chief of Arctic Village, a small village in northeastern Alaska—introduce himself simply as “a boy who was raised by a river.” A description as smooth and slippery as a river rock. Did he mean only that he grew up near its banks? Or was the river responsible for rearing him, for teaching him the things he needed to live? Did it feed him, body and soul? Raised by a river: I suppose both meanings are true—you can hardly have one without the other. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 82
Categorization
- XREF: Foundational framing of place-as-teacher/relative that anchors the Reading the Landscape course and land-relationship course; sets up paragraph 83’s ‘raised by strawberries.’ — connects to: Parks’ finest purpose is spiritual uplift via beauty — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 526; Landscape beings raise a person into their sense of place and world — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 83; Sufi orders legitimize their pedagogy through a chain of spiritual transmission — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 3596 (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- Gardens are simultaneously material and spiritual undertakings
#expands(0.80) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 427 - Sufi orders legitimize their pedagogy through a chain of spiritual transmission
#exemplifies(0.75) — , The Rod and the Child, 3596 - Experiencing overwhelming mountains explains the origin of nature worship.
#expands(0.75) — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 225