Space and Place
From No Man is an Island - a second volume on the teaching of Geography in Waldorf/Steiner Education, Antropos 2003
by David L. Brierley
Aristotle is the first person to really cast light upon the relations between place and space and thus, in many ways, is responsible for a philosophical background to the study of Geography which can also clearly be seen in the geography curriculum in a Steiner/Waldorf school. The interaction of place and space reflects the general world view of the Ancient Greek. A central question was if space was expansive with a tendency to ‘disintegrate’ place and become a negative force, or if space worked inwardly to ‘consolidate’ place. The distant and the near was reflected in the two concepts of cosmogenesis and topogenesis. Cosmogenesis was regarded as being the projection of the world as space; topogenesis was concerned with particular places in the world. Places define the world, but at the same time the world is an entity on which places are dependent. Aristotle also uses a mediatory term, chora. Space is something unlimited whilst place has clear boundaries. A description of these boundaries is essential. Space has an outward character, place inward. For the Ancient Greek place represented the inhabitable, and it is possible to follow a development through time to an era where the infinity of space becomes a dominating aspect of the subject as in the theological Weltanschauung which is described in the introduction to volume I.1 The gradual loosening of the relation between the divine and space became more apparent as time progressed. This is shown in the substitution of the word cosmos with universe. The former was thought to be internal space, the latter infinite space. The Latin term universe really means one entity. The Ancient Greeks had no word for ‘universe’, the nearest being pan (‘The All’). The Greek conception of the world involves the place as a domain for shelter and security. Later the longing for that which is extensive became apparent.2 Anaximander was responsible for considering a sense of boundlessness, ‘apeiron’.3
Place is concerned with limits and boundaries, of location, space with that which is immense and extended. In place but out in space. Is this space empty? (kenon), only a void is empty. The transformation of place to space has several levels. Place (topos) can be thought to be stationary. Chora (raum) is from the verb ‘to go’ or rather, ‘to roam’. A third level is space, a fourth void which is out of the world and of no concern for the geographer. A source of inspiration in our geographical methodology is the study of the boundaries between the spheres of place and space. The geographer sees the significance of the boundary (Greek = horizein) and the surroundings (periechein) and must try to describe them. The more ambiguous the boundary is the less defined is the place. This is one of the mainstays of Proclus’4 natural philosophy. Boundaries create form (tupos).
The description of spatial phenomena is altogether different. Space is defined direction. The place is determined by its position. Places are arranged in space.5
The next stage in the development of geographical thought is the Renaissance, a time of expansion and wide-reaching exploration which has its parallels in the age of adolescence. It is a time of unboundedness. To be unbounded is to be without circumference. A boundary always implies that something is on the other side. During the Great Age of Exploration pioneers tried to locate space. We then became acquainted with the expressions everywhere and nowhere. The use of the words all over the place finds its way into everyday language. Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) uses the term locus and not spatium and by doing so defines space anew. The new spirit of the time gave rise to new possibilities in the quest for identity in the relationship between the world and the individual. This is reflected in the curriculum of the seventh class - it is truly a geographical year- the study of the continents, the Age of Exploration, perspective drawing. The world is of infinite size and is as such a place (universo); there is a «world of worlds» (mondi). Bruno’s6 treatise from the year 1484 De l’infinito universal et mondi states that there is one universe and many worlds.
‘Tis all in peeces, all coherence gone;
All just supply, all in Relation.
John Donne7
The end of the sixteenth century figured as a dramatic turning point in human thinking regarding place and space, Bruno was a victim of the Inquisition, Cardono and Campanella were also arrested for their views and many works on the same topic were confiscated. At the same time the geographer carefully made his entrance in what is for us, as teachers, a particularly important aspect of the subject: The qualitative differentiation of places in space, a heterogeneity of place.
The eighteenth century was to become the century which characterized places in relation to one another. The totality of spaces correspond to the totality of the universe. The contribution of Kant warrants a short reference. In his geographical lectures8 there is no reference to place (ort) or position (lage) but rather region. There was no space for place and no place in space! This had also consequences for cartography at that time. Seventeenth century maps of the earth represent global visions of discovery.
Walking
Many geographers who lived in a period from the first half of the nineteenth until the beginning of the twentieth century worked on a framework in which place has a central position as the centre for human attachment:
Point—Position—Place— Region—Space
They were of the opinion that this could only be attained through physical activity, by first-hand experience. This led to geographers leaving their desks to walk around the countryside. Men of literature such as William Wordsworth was a true rambler. His influence on Geography is not to be underestimated. Wordsworth’s Guide Through the District of the Lakes is a kind of itinerary but in geographical terms it is a method on how to see; and learning to observe meant abandoning conventional attitudes. Wordsworth’s The Excursion is an elaboration on the same theme.9 Our relation to the world is by way of our physical body, through thought and sensory perception.
Our judgements are subordinated to the concept we have of regions in general, insofar as they are determined in relation to the sides of the body.
Immanuel Kant10
Far from my body’s being for me no more than a fragment of space, there would be no space at all for me if I had no body.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty11
The body, the alterations of which are my alterations -this body is my body; and the place of that body is at the same time my place.
Immanuel Kant12
Husserl’s lectures of 1904-513 outlined an interpretation of spatial elements which gave rise to a new thinking in the realm of Geography in an ever increasingly more complex world. Husserl was concerned with the position of the human body, geographers with the connection between the ego (Ich) and the environment. One aspect of the body is the physical body (Körper) another is the living body (Leib) as the bearer of the ‘I’ and the centre of experience. Wherever I move I am always here. Space is right and left, up and down, in front of and behind. Spatial ability is anchored in the body. Thanks to my body I am the centre of my world (an Ichzentrum, I-centre). The true stabilitas loci is not a place elsewhere, it is in myself. Husserl says, in his lectures of 1907, that the body moves but it never gets further away from itself. Kant had also forwarded the idea that the body is the source of all orientation.
The idea of lived space which is fundamental for our goals within geography teaching in a Steiner/Waldorf school has its roots in the philosophy of Carl Ritter.14 The notion of lived space corresponds to the idea of ‘lived body’ between perception and imagination, between mobility in a landscape and our studies in the classroom.. The character of the place can be realised by kinaesthetic awareness or by creative description. The question is: is the one dependent on the other? Thus our methods must consider the way from Lebensraum to Lebenswelt.15 We have underlined the importance of the home place, the home region, i.e. visual space, a near-sphere, a subjective space, as a platform for a more objective far-sphere in a progression through the curriculum.
Place in space has two sides: an initial setting and as a basis for delineating positions. This is the essence of Humboldt’s theories in his Cosmos.
Position: is relative, in contrast to a region. When I say I am going to Western Norway I refer to a region. The name often tells me of its cardinal direction. The world itself possesses no direction, it is my sense of direction which determines the situation. At the same time west can be identified relatively -north, south and east. Recent surveys16 have revealed that geographical understanding can only be developed in relation to ourselves. This standpoint was adopted by a number of geographers in the early twentieth century and we should note Rudolf Steiner’s reference to the Niagara Falls and the River Elbe and even more so in his statement:
In so far I am a man of legs and feet, I am part of the world of space.17
To read a map depends on our right and left hands. Orientation is dependent on the bilaterality of the human body. The position of places depends on symmetry. Geographical knowledge is of little use if we are unable to order relative positions. The characteristic position of places (die Lage der Örter) gives them their configuration and content. (Recent research has revived questions regarding the connection between spatial orientation and the formation of thought). Kant’s division of place and space can be modified so that the body is placed in a central position.18
Position- Place- Body- Region-Space
The anthropological basis for the subject of Geography, the subject as a mediator between the world and the ‘I’, is important as a form of physical and mental orientation in a globalized society. Hesserl’s lectures of 1904-5 can help us to understand the privileged position of the human body.19
I call this status lived space. The ancient Romans expressed the same concept as: Solvitur ambulando, which, directly translated, means solve it by walking!
It is important that we keep this in mind in a time when children are easily disorientated by the constant use of motorized transport, Local Geography at the nine year old age level, at the stage where an independent orientation in space is a necessity for further development in the subject, rambling can be a important activity. Husserl describes how activities of this kind supports what he calls the functioning ego. A prerequisite to be at one with my world is that I am in place.
When we walk we become acquainted in this introductory Geography with our little world, our near-world. It is not of our own making. Wallace Stevens20 uses the apt expression:
I am the World in which I walk.
Being in Place
Lived Place and Space is the aim of our educational work in Geography. The childhood experience of place is strong and is remembered throughout life. Our childhood is an array of places, so vital that they have been the subject of some of the greatest works in twentieth century literature as Marcel Proust’s Combray and James Joyce’s Dublin. The lively sensitivity of the child differentiates space and opens up places.
Martin Heidegger is able to contribute to our theme: The Worldhood of the World.
Martin Heidegger’s asks: what happens in the interaction of places in space? His Being-in-the-World and ‘world-space’ (Weltraum) are fascinating concepts. ‘In’ is derived from ‘innan’- ‘to reside’,‘habitare’ ‘to dwell’, ‘an’ refers to that ‘I am familiar with’. The expression ‘bin’ is connected with ‘bei’ so that ‘ich bin’ (‘I am’) means ‘I reside’ or ‘I dwell alongside the world’. Heidegger’s interpretations of the ‘Being of Space’ are complicated and must be seen in the context of the overall view of the world seen from a point in time at the beginning of the twentieth century. We have already referred to some of the main points of this philosophy in the first volume of this work and will return to others later in connection with his ideas on dwelling. Dwelling is always dwelling in nearness, nearhood (Nahheit), and nighness (Nahnis) which are factors in Heidegger’s call for a Topography of Being.
We take the region itself as that which comes to meet us.
Martin Heidegger21
In recent decades there has been a great deal of inspirational work done in the field of space and place which casts some light on a future Geography. Bachelard, Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari, and Derrida have all made contributions to new thought even though some of these theories are not compatible with the anthropological basis for a geographical methodology.
We do not change place, we change our nature.
Gaston Bachelard22
Since Bachelard’s death in 1962, the same year as Heidegger gave his last important lecture Being and Time, new views on the overall aims of geography teaching have been forwarded. The work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guatteri23 has proved significant. They highlight the special connection to the world of the nomad who lives on the fringes of a settled world. One can say, he lives, in no fixed place. With a background in teaching Geography in the seventh class on the topic of the indigenous peoples of the earth, I find this work inspirational. The topic entails a study of the phenomena of place and space. We can choose four peoples with varying attachments to space and place e.g. the Eskimo (north), Red Indian (west), Bushman (south) and Chinese (east). We can describe the static nature of the Chinese (a word derived from stare = ‘to stand’) as opposed to the nomad, the wanderer. When we describe these societies we see that their whole philosophy of life is based on their particular sense of ‘lived space’, their particular kinship with a climate and topography.
The world of the nomad is a recognition of space which has direct consequences, for example, that they have to form societies in a different way, acting in closely-knit bands and groups.24 Another factor in space is the position of water, the ‘provider of life’, in the environment. The prairies of North America and Canada as wide open spaces are broken by sizeable lakes, the desert of the Kalahari by its water-holes. The flat, Chinese plains are dominated by its massive river systems and of floods. Water has a direct influence on the landscape and on place and space as it is the source of life and manifests itself in the social patterns of the inhabitants. A river gives us a sense of direction and disperses people over great distances. A lake is a stretch of water without horizontal movement, it swells vertically and encourages settlement, gathering people along its banks. The first settlers in North America gathered round the banks of the Great Lakes, today one of the most populous areas in the world. In Norway there is a differences between places which are situated on fast-flowing rivers such as the Logen, or on the banks of a deep lake, such as Mjøsa. The floods of the Chinese plains swell outwards in a special way and all sense of orientation is hindered.
According to Deleuze and Guattari there is a contrast between smooth and striated space. The terms originate from the composer Pierre Boulez. Smooth space gives room for the vagabond, a moving and roaming not the direct movement between two fixed points. On the high seas or in middle of the desert we ‘listen’ to direction. Here we are not dependent on certain points or places but on sets of relations which are crucial for a comparative geographical approach which we have adopted in the Steiner/Waldorf school.
This nomadic space is always a region- a desert, a sea, the steppes of Russia. The nomad is always at a certain point in a centre of vastness. Place becomes region. A region is not a totality of innumerous places it has an individuality. A wise Bushman once said: place is everywhere. Therefore the nomad is able to dwell by moving, he is always in transition within one fixed region. Spatial topography and its invitation to movement and activity is an interesting subject. Thesiger25 describes how the Bedouin crouches in a stationary position on his galloping horse in a kind of mobile immobility. He does not move in relation to the desert, he is nevertheless crossing it.
This breaks with what we usually call the settled and with place as such, it is not unhomely, ‘umheimlich’, within the home, for the nomad is at home in the desert or on the steppelands where nothing is feared or strange. Deleuze and Guattari are of the opinion that the nomad’s relationship to the earth is one of constant deterritorialization. Place in itself is everywhere and the nomad exists through the whole region. The region is the place I am in, the ship is always underway on the high seas, the caravan is perpetually crossing the desert, the huskies continue to pull the sledge across the ice. Place is everywhere. When the nomad is on his travels he never looks to the right or the left, he looks straight forward.
The word ‘nomad’ itself is derived from ‘nem’ which means ‘distribution’, in this case with parallels to animals in a flock. Nomos is concerned with distribution and has its antonym in the word polis which refers to restriction, (the settlement, village or town).
In contrast striated space freezes movement and disembodies location. It is subject to exact measurement of distance, constant orientation, to points of reference. The emphasis is to bring the unlimited within limits, the encompassing whole is brought into order -it becomes a space of sites rather than a region of places so that the factors of without and within, spatium and extensio are related.
Wilfred Thesiger is a source of inspiration for any teacher of Geography. His books Arabian Sands, The Marsh Arabs and his biographical work Desert, Marsh and Mountain, with its sub-title The World of the Arab are modern classics.
The word ‘Arab’ means ‘tent dweller’ as opposed to ‘Hazar’ which means ‘house-dweller’. Our thoughts go back to the biblical story of Cain and Abel. Abel is the nomad, Cain, his brother, builds the first town. Cain kills Abel to gain mastery over his wandering brother.
A reference should be made to Bachelard, who maintains that a prerequisite of a healthy, modern relationship between the ‘I’ and the world is the imagining mind which exemplifies a new placefulness.
As noted above, the syllabus for the seventh class often involves descriptions of peoples of the earth who live close to nature in a differentiated world.
The Settler
Our western civilization is based on farming. Agriculture has shaped a large percentage of the earth’s surface. The farm is a symbol for stability and profound conservatism. The need to be settled is an important part of the human constitution. Farmers are also restless, as they are constantly moulding the landscape, reshaping fields, building walls and fences. Rural societies in the temperate zone of the earth are based on intense traditions. The settler sees no end to labour and toil, he sows and reaps, reshapes and modifies his allotted patch of the earth. He must be able to hold everything under control, his little society is well-planned. Its basis is the family where inheritance is an important factor. The farm is a society in itself. Expansion is the driving force of the settler, he modifies the forests and marshes to meet his needs for greater ownership and profit.
The success of the farmer is based on two opposite forces: the desire to settle and a fierce restlessness. His relationship to space and place is an attachment to the home and the passion to roam. A farmer will move on if he sees the possibility to better his production. Traditionally his attachment to the place has been secondary to his desire for prosperity. He has constantly weighed security against exploitation.
The first settlers lived in the river valleys of India and China. The Chinese civilization is an optimal agricultural society. Space is organized and correlated in relation to the cardinal directions. Chinese society has been dependent on the fertility of alluvial soils. The Chinese people have also been subject to a rigorous order. The need for clarity and standardization is apparent on the greatest plain on earth. This has been furthered by a system for the clear partitioning of the land into square fields, each about forty acres in size. The Chinese, as agriculturalists, are constantly changing the landscape. The diversion of water to create paddy fields is a major activity in rural China and control of the annual floods has always demanded labour and time. Construction, reconstruction and constant improvement is part and parcel of the agriculturalist’s life. This is shown in the location of the capital. It was originally situated in the Wei Ho valley, later it was moved to the Layang plateau and so on the Beijing plain. These three sites represent three levels in the Chinese topography. Throughout history the Chinese peasant has sought to control and transform nature, often displaying great feats of human achievement. At the same time society was based on a conservative attitude where the family dynasty and strict travel restrictions have been key factors.
As settlers the Chinese are a nation of farmers and merchants. Both these positions in life depend on a love of the place. The place is usually a market-town. Artisans and traders depended on farming. Ch’ang-an is typically Chinese, a bustling centre for a large population who worked their allotments in the surrounding countryside. The town has been unrivalled as a settlement full of activity.
The locality reveals the Chinese identity as it is the source of the deepest sense of the self. The town is the ultimate in a settled life. It is no coincidence that the first cities were established in China.
Individualism and variety are traits of nomadic people. In a land of farmers and peddlers who live on a plain, uniformity is a social principle.
The peddler (ped=leg) is a Chinese phenomena, a local traveller who walked the streets and whose world was strictly localized.
The Nomad
Endemic nomadism (endemic= (gr.) in a certain region) has its basis in a completely different understanding of space and place. Nomadic children grow up with a feeling that the environment models them. They are not brought up to reshape or modify their surroundings, they learn to sustain that which has been provided for them. The question of multiplying, of expansion, is never considered, their task is the keep nature in balance.
Endemic nomads are, in some ways, more settled than the farmer: not in place but in space. Settlers, on the other hand, have travelled long distances to colonize new lands in South Africa, America and Australia.
The theme in the seventh class also involves a presentation of the archetypes of humanity: the hunter-gatherer and the herder, ways of life often associated with the nomad and the farmer who is settled. We must realise that the hunter-gatherer is relevant for humankind as a whole: they maintain the natural world. In their territories there are no fields or hedges and no land rights. A farmer would call these regions wildernesses. The word is derived from ‘realm of the wild deer’. This means that it is a region beyond human habitation, without place. The peoples who live in these areas do not use the expression wilderness, describing them as areas ‘without human voice’.
The teacher should describe how these indigenous peoples are able to listen to the nature giving them a highly specialized knowledge of which we are envious. There is no place for analytical thinking but precise rational processes. The teacher can describe their patterns of movement, how they can feel the wind, watch the sky. He can describe the quality of their practical knowledge and their spirituality and geopiety. The agricultural mind is one of systematic order, of deductive reasoning.
The hunter is always conscious of a spiritual world. He is linked to his environment through insight and intuition. He lives in an egalitarian society. Food is shared equally, there is no difference in the standard of living between the lesser and more successful hunters. The size of the social group is dependent on the availability of food and this again influences the degree of mobility. The success of the hunt depends on knowledge accumulated through many generations and an intimate kinship with the environment. The hunter-gatherer sees his home as a paradise; to move elsewhere is to take an unthinkable risk. Nomadic tribes are the most differentiated peoples on the earth. In Arctic and sub-Arctic regions the Innuits (Eskimos) are divided into small groups such as the Dunne-za and Innu of Labrador. Their languages are as different as Japanese and English.
In contrast to nomads, herders and farmers have always looked for the most fertile areas. River valleys have always been attractive due to the abundance of water and easily worked alluvial soils. The hunter-gatherer lives in a region which is of little value for agriculture. They are geographical and climatic extremes -regions of extreme heat and cold as the Kalahari, the Australian outback, Alaska, Siberia. The inhabitants of these areas are in many ways more advanced than us, in their mobility, in the use of the senses in decision-making as well in their ecological and spiritual way of life.
The nomad lives a life of compulsive wandering. A modern form of nomadism is the desire to flee, a kind of escapism getting away from it all. Restlessness is a common ailment in the modern-day settler. Wandering nourishes the curiosity, the urge to be on the move. Nomads with ancient routes such as the Evenki peoples of the inner Baikal region in Central Asia feel that they do not move from place to place that the world without which is in constant motion.
As we have noted earlier, the nomad’s home is a region and the lack of a fixed home is compensated for by unchanged routes. Tribal lands are of the utmost importance. The sailor also travels in the horizontal dimension but is constantly attached to the home port.
Bruce Chatwin, himself an irrational, modern nomad divides nomads into two categories. The first includes free wanderers who are dependent on hunting or herding animals. The second group contains those wanderers who have the need for a base, a haven. Archaic hunters followed the source of food. These were omnivorous, they were predators. They did not develop food resources. They lived in the present and were in possession of a different conception of time. These nomads tolerated the lowest forms of comfort. Luxury prevents mobility. In order to be mobile one must be thingless. We usually like to have possessions with which we have a certain attachment. Often these things are unnecessary in the material sense of the word but are emotionally important to us. They have a symbolic value. The yearning to collect things is deeply rooted in our nature. This urge gave rise to the gatherer who lived in the forest expanses of the world. Things connect the child and adult to the world around him. In this way we can behold an interest for our surroundings. Often these souvenirs have a social value. Recent educational research has shown the need for the infant to have a close connection to the mother in the first fifteen months of its life.
If the mother withdraws the child will, to a greater degree, show an interest for things around him. The infant will always need to relate himself to the world by way of people or things. Amongst nomads, especially those who inhabit the savanna regions of Africa, small children cling to the mother’s left breast up to the age of seven or so. This is not only due to nutrition. Their interest in things is minimized, toys are unknown and respect for the human being and social integrity are features of their culture.
Life in the Arctic region or the hot desertlands represents everything that the settled life is not. There is a unforgiving climate which at first seems beyond the scope of human endeavour. But these indigenous peoples see diversity where we see monotony. The Inuit celebrate six seasons where we see one: winter. He sees the great variety of light and dark, the scope of mountain and plain. The Bushman has thirty-seven words for brown, the Eskimo twenty-seven words for snow.
The deserts of snow and deserts of sand are treeless cultures. They figured as the limits of the classical imagination. They were thought to be regions which kept a status quo and which therefore could not support an advancing culture. In the nineteenth century the deserts of the world were thought to be regions where death was a means of life. Explorers had to adapt radically in order to survive. They found full-blooded nomadism as well as transhumance on the borders of the wastelands.
Committed nomads such as the Tueregs of the Sahara severely protect their culture. Deserts stifle development but today we think of these regions as important spaces, similar to the oceans. Moving through space means communication. A route is sacred for a desert tribe. The greatest explorer of all time in terms of distance, the Arab Ibn Battuta has a thrilling account of a passage through the desert. He vividly tells of the sand in constant movement, wiping out the concept of place. Navigation was by way of the stars. The heavens and the earth were in constant motion, nothing was static, the nomads living in a realm between different degrees of motion. His experiences, in the mid-fourteenth century were heartfelt. It took him two months to cross the most arid part of the Sahara from Sijilmassa in Morocco to Walata in Mali.
Only sand blown about by the wind. You see mountains of sand in one place, then you see how they are moved to another . . .
The blind were the best guides in the desert, a place where demons played optical tricks on travellers. At the same time there is a certain predictability about these vast spaces, there are no unexpected hazards. The ultimate danger is getting lost. It is a life on the margins of the impossible in a landscape of unrest.
The Kalahari is covered with a 4-35 meter layer of sand. In the whole desert there are only nine permanent and four semi-permanent water sources. The average height is 1200 meters above sea level, the temperature is usually between 35-40 degrees Celsius in the day, -5 degrees at night.
The Eskimo lives in a climate with an average daily temperature of -18 to -24 degrees, -40 at night. Under his feet is layer of 20 meters of ice. Frozen water everywhere.
The spiritual power of the wilderness is deeper than any other form of landscape. There is a strong impression of the supernatural and an awareness of the self in time and space. The wilderness is closely connected to the divine. The most sublime experience can be found in the desert, whether hot or cold, or at the apex of a mountain. Boundlessness and emptiness are the two main attributes of such landscapes. The quietness of the desert is also visual. The eye is able to dwell in the landscape. This gives a permanence of gaze which bears comparison to the stillness of the mountain top. In the heat of the desert the physical body becomes emancipated from physical space. Distance becomes irrelevant and the journey infinite. The desert fosters isolation This makes you exaggerate the person you are. Some of our greatest explorers really identified themselves with the desert. The biographies of T. E. Lawrence and Charles Doughty are important sources for our geography teaching. Bruce Chatwin left for Patagonia to explore the theory that the lonely grow lonelier in a wilderness. Patagonian immigrants with Welsh backgrounds became even more Welsh. He found that nomads were often dreamers, they were the best storytellers in the world. They often tell of the wind, for these remote regions are always windy. The wind always comes towards you. The landscape plays on the imagination.
The peoples of the wildernesses have two alternatives: they either dig in or they move on.
In continuation of our theme concerning the spatial aspects in the field of Geography we must, in reference to the quotation from Rudolf Steiner’s lecture26 on the importance of the links between the ‘I’ and ‘the world’, consider the place of the geometrical element as a help to achieve our goals. It is a well-known fact that geographical studies in earlier times as in Ancient China or in Eratosthenes’ Alexandria involved periodic shifts between geographical description and geometrical measurement. This was not only due to the need to produce accurate maps which involved both description and measurement whereby the quality of point, direction and space could be addressed but such activities also flexed and vitalized the soul forces of the student.
The value of Form Drawing in the Steiner/Waldorf school should not be underestimated. We see how the curriculum has a certain correlation between the subjects which I broadly term Geographia, and in particular between Form Drawing, Geometry and Geography. Here the practice of spatial observation is applicable: point-space, centre-periphery, direction etc. provides preparatory exercises in perception and visualization. Rudolf Steiner explains how these exercises affect the activity of the etheric body and how pictorial impressions can help to harmonize, stimulate and strengthen the physical organism.27 Our attempts to enhance a spatial visualization is a vital component of Form Drawing. The exercises involve not only the copying of forms as accurately as possible but also the ability to visualize forms in relation to others. This ability, centred in the etheric body is fundamental in an inner visualization of places and regions. It is necessary to recognize form and spatial relationships when memorizing the world map, grasping distances between regions or continents. These exercises are not only concerned with outer forms but also with the dynamic principle of corporal orientation. Rudolf Steiner, in his Torquay lectures, underlies the importance of this work.28 At first the child will be quite awkward at doing these exercises but gradually he will develop more thoughtfulness in his observations and a greater imagery in his thinking. Thinking will remain completely in the realm of imagery. Thinking in images is a criteria for all geographical work. With a great deal of interest I have studied forms traditionally used in decorating pottery and clothing in different cultures and tried to see this is relation to the topography of the area in question. In Form Drawing we have a wonderful opportunity to cultivate and stimulate the child’s imagination in a living way -keeping it within bounds -not letting it get wild into fantastic elements. At the same time we should emphasis the opportunities to work further along the same lines in our Eurythmy lessons where the pupils move and are relating themselves to space all the time.
Through every human being unique space,
ultimate space, opens us up to the world.
Rainer Maria Rilke
We must ask: which factors are involved in order to achieve the ultimate aim: a consciousness of ‘lived space’?
Feelings and ideas with regard to space and place are complex in the adult. The adult world view is upheld by experiences and conceptual knowledge. Schoolchildren are subject to cultural influences as they grow up but the imperatives of childhood development transcend such factors. What really is the nature of attachment and experiences to places known and unknown and what is the substance of feeling involved?
Anthropological conditions are fundemental in a child’s spacial development. The infant has no world as such as he cannot distinguish between the self and the environment. His sensations are not, at this stage, localized in space. The infant first starts to take an interest in the world and after four months his world is a radius of one metre. Animals, on the other hand, have usually gained a sense of orientation by that time. Which factors are necessary for the infant to gain a feeling of space? The distinction between the horizontal and vertical is vital when, for example, the child is picked up by his mother. The visual space of the infant lacks structure and stability, everything is impression, little is experience. But, in later stages of the child’s development, experience becomes essentially directed towards the outer world. This development has been researched by Piaget and his followers, something which has greatly influenced educational theory in the modern day and age. The work of Piaget has shown us that sensory-motor intelligence precedes conceptual thought and that spacial skills are far more advanced at this early stage than faculties of intellectual comprehension. A child’s idea of place becomes more specific and geographical as he grows. His interest is first centred on the local community and neighbourhood. Later the child is capable of arousing a curiosity towards foreign places. Geography is concerned with both known and unknown places and regions.
As we have established in the first volume of this work, the home is the corner of the world. It is, in many ways, our first conscious universe. These anthropocosmic ties slacken in puberty. The value of ‘inhabited’ space lies in the fact that this non-I protects the I. All ‘inhabited’ space bears the essence of the notion of home. What seems particularly interesting in this context is that the geographical setting provides the platform for the imagination and the basis of dreams and thoughts. Both memory and imagination have a deeper geographical context. Memories from the learned but inexperienced world -a landscape or setting- will never really have the same totality in the subconscious as those connected to the home area. Childhood comprises primarily of enclosed space. Geography teaching starts from the point in time where the pupil enters a world which is part and parcel of the metaphysics of consciousness. Memories are securely fixed in space -memory must be localized.
Thoreau was well aware that space calls for action, he knew that the imagination has to be activated beforehand. The imaginative element is closely connected with repose and in such a context the values of work in the classroom and the methods involved in fostering the imagination must be addressed.
A central indication of the path we must follow was given by Rudolf Steiner in the summer of 1921 when, in the third lecture of the Supplementary Course, he remarks:
...there must be a true seeing in space. The child must, for example, be conscious that the Niagara Falls is not the River Elbe! We must help him to realise that a vast space stretches between the two.29
Far from the immensity of sea and land, merely through imagination, our task as teachers is to capture by way of the inner eye the renonances of this contemplation of grandeur. In this way a special attitude is nurtured, an inner state that is unlike any other, that transports the pupil outside the immediate world. As teachers we have to produce a productive flow of images, not a series of complete images which easily can be stabilized.
Vastness or nearness is to be found within ourselves; they are connected with the very expansion of being. At once we become motionless we are elsewhere. Space also involves the question of the movement of motionless man. The concept of the immensity of the Atlantic Ocean compared with the Niagara Falls or the River Elbe originates in a body of impressions which have little to do with geographical information. The educational task is more profound than mere description. The geographical dimension is rooted in an oneiric value which lasts for life, never to be forgotten.
When we prepare our lessons on the topic of the indigenous peoples of the earth we can base our accounts on a series of descriptions:
- a description of the climate
- a description of the landscape
- a description of plant and animal life, the source of food.
- a description of the physical appearance of the inhabitants
- a description of the social order
- a description of the culture
All these descriptions are a product of a perception of the environment and the singularity of movement (relation to space and place). Jakob von Uexhüll commented on this method, when in 1939, he emphasized that the underlying factor in the composition of such descriptions should be the umwelt. This means that we not only describe the environment but we attempt to describe through the eyes of the people who live there.
Eskimaux/Inuit
If we now consider the lands of the Eskimo (esquimaux= eater of raw meat; Inuit=human-being), we find that the territories involved are very extensive covering one-third of the earth’s circumference at this high latitude. The landscape is composed of bays, inlets and sizeable islands. The coastline itself is covered by ice. These fringes between sea and land are flat. Many of the most extensive regions of the world are inhabited by nomadic peoples e.g. the interior plains of Australia, the steppes of Central Asia, the deserts of Arabia and the fringes of the Arctic. These regions are open to strong movements of air and winds. The homelands of the Eskimo has an average of 260 stormy days in a year.
The Arctic landscape is a landscape in movement. The behaviour of light on a landscape is a wonderful sight. It takes its colour from the sun, water and clouds. It also takes its dimensions from the light -the more direct and stronger the light the greater contrast there is to the sea. The bluer the sky, the brighter the form and its outline. The landscape is floating, is composed of moving shapes -ridges, slopes, valleys; where the iceberg meets the water we can eye caves, caverns and grottos. The ice here is murky blue and is in sharp contrast to the brighter blues of the thinner ice. Where the ice has been fractured the colour is predominantly green. In the twilight the ice reflects delicate tinges of orange, pink, apricot, purple and reddish-yellow. The mountains of ice can be 65m. high, 465m. long, four-fifths of the height is under water, seven-eighths of the total mass.
The ice cap is composed of layers of compact snow, 1500 miles long, 450 miles wide and 3700m. thick. It moves towards the sea where huge blocks break off. Icebergs are calved and drift away in currents. Sea ice is less predictable in movement, constantly bumping and breaking up, so forming again. The landscape is a conglomeration of form and provides us with a fascinating geometry.
Pack ice is an accumulation of sea ice and is not attached to the shore; shorefast ice is equally dangerous. It is a perilous environment for the ice is an imprisoning force. It can be a platform for rest but it is easy to get lost or be carried away. It is always forming and re-forming, always shaping life. Its interactive forces destroy and sustain life. It is a domain of currents, winds and tides.
The heavens are also in movement: the aurora borealis with its swirling patterns in pale green and peach. In winter the skies are predominantly deep violet, purple, blue and lavender. In spring yellows, crimsons and saffrons give us a milder picture of the landscape. The spiritual presence in this heavenly movement is emphasized by the whistling and cracking sounds of the aurora awaking feelings of awe. It is a land of images and mirages where imagination meets reality. It is the realm of winter darkness, in eskimo language perlerorneq, the weight of life. A greater compassion towards nature and one’s fellow-beings is a necessity as it helps us to sleep soundly and deeply. Winter is the time of sleep.
In this cold vastness of the north live the Inuit peoples. Originally they were the only people without fire and were totally dependent on raw meat. Their extraordinary digestive systems made it possible to generate body heat that kept them alive on a diet of blubber and fish oil. They were the only people on earth who, for most of the year, depended only on meat. These Arctic peoples adjust to the seasons, to light and dark. They hunt animals who are guided by light. There are innumerous species of wild geese in the region. The snowgoose springs to mind; it migrates in flocks up to 250,000 birds. The Eskimo can look up to the sky to find the same whiteness in the heavens as on the ground. The geese are also nomads, with long migrations up to 20,000 kms. from Canada’s arctic rim to Central America, following the course of the Rockies. In this region of Northern Canada it is estimated that there are over 44 million migratory birds.
Fish also migrate. The rivers teem with salmon -the chinook, chum, pink, coho and sockeye. In addition there are concentrations of sea mammals which wander large distances. The seal and walrus are cumbersome on land or pack ice, but are masters of movement once in the water. Land animals are fewer. The Caribou (a North American reindeer) is an animal which treks amazing distances. The polar bear lives on the margins of the ice and open water where it can feed on kelp. Its main source of food is the seal. It can grow to a length of four meters and can weigh some 1200 kg. Its hind legs are longer and it usually moves slowly, at about 4 km. per hour. When hunting it can reach a speed of 40 km. per hour. The polar bear has the highest body temperature of any animal, protected as it is by its thick, white fur.
In the world of the hunter the hunt is sacred. There is a strong connection between the hunter and the hunted. The hunter feels a responsibility to the animal, to himself, to his clan or tribe, to his God. He is at one with the landscape, at one with its animals and plants. He has the task of not only interpreting a change of weather, to read the language of tracks but also has to analyse his own perceptions. He has to recount them for himself, his fellow hunters, for his tribe. He is a storyteller.
He cannot kill an animal without first establishing an intimate relationship with it. He has to live in its feelings and senses. An antelope is not just an antelope. Each species and each animal is different.
The eskimo hunter lives in ilira (awe) and kappia (apprehension). He kills the animal he has chosen himself for his family or tribe. He hunts a carnivorous animal, the cumbersome seal.
The plant-eating eland is a different proposition for the Bushman. The San (Bushman) has a different vitality to the Eskimo. He is athletically built with long, thin legs. His frame is adapted to running long distances quickly in a heat of 40 degrees C. The elegant springbok ‘floats’ in the air, hardly touching the ground. The animals of the Kalahari provide quite a contrast to the heavy, cumbersome seal or the strong and heavy bisons which the Red Indians hunted on the prairies of North America.
Often the hunter lives alone after completing his task. He can hide for three days, alone and without food or drink. He does not speak or work until he is assured that the soul of the seal has reached its resting place.
The Hunter/Pasturalist
The opposite to the hunter is, in many ways, the pasturalist. He is also the opposite to the nomad as he has a fixed abode. Traditionally the pasturalist lives on the grasslands of the world. He has cultivated the grains of these regions -rice, wheat, barley, oats, rye and millets. The world’s grasslands, the poaceae, cover approximately one quarter of the earth’s surface. These areas are known for their undulating landscapes of warmth and light. They extend over a belt on either side of the Equator. The North American prairies and Asian steppes are flowing seas of grass subject to unrelenting winds.
The American Indian
Grasslands figure as one of the four great natural environments of the world; the others being deserts, the tundra and the forests. Human development in the grassland environment means overcoming a lack of water and severe winds. Where the conditions are too harsh for pastoralism nomadism takes over. These regions become the home of the nomad pastoralist who live in tents as the tipi of the North American Indian or the yurt of Central Asia. The greatest plain in the world has been the basis for the development of the Chinese civilization. In the 2nd century B.C. the emperor Wu attempted to control the roving nomads, to harness the potential of grass as the source of all human and animal life. Grass provided an irresistible demand for motion and the settler became the creator of change which epitomized Chinese society. The pasturalist shapes and reshapes his environment in a fixed abode. At the same time the grasses of the world are dispersed over the whole globe. No plant is so extensive or is carried over such great distances. Its character is universal. Only two plants are found within the Antarctic Circle, one being grass (Deschapsia Antarctica). Some grasses are found in the Himalayas at an altitude of over 5500m. Grass is adapted to mobility and change. It provides 25% of the vegetation cover of the world.
Our theme when studying these indigenous peoples is their relation to their environment. Their world view reflects their view of the human being himself.
The organization of human space is based on sight. Other senses expand visual space. Sound, for example, gives us spacial awareness of areas out of sight. Touch gives us a sense of the near, sense of movement connects us to the far. Human spaces reflect the qualities of the human senses. The vastness of the plains is not directly perceived. We consider a notion of vastness. Each of these four peoples: the Eskimo, Chinese, Bushman and Red Indian rely on their acute senses as well as their imaginative capability.
In the culture of the Dakota Indian of North America we find an obsession with circular forms in contrast to the Pueblo Indian who prefer rectangular forms. These are the results of a combination of a mythical, pragmatic and theoretical comprehension of their place in the universe. The Hopi Indians live on a semi-arid plateau with a dry climate. They have the ability to see long distances in a landscape of panoramas. In doing so these tribes also lived in an objective realm. The Saulteaux Indians of Manitoba inhabited a confined area east of Lake Winnipeg. They lived in a small world but were known for their detailed knowledge of the region. Generalization gave way to a complicated, detailed culture. They depended on hunting, relying exclusively on natural landmarks for orientation. Other tribes relied on winds for orientation over wide spaces.
American plains Indians had migratory habits. The Comanches changed the location of their main camp annually. In choosing these camps, range was more important than site. Landscape made personal and tribal history visible.
When European settlers invaded the North American Plains they found a boundless ocean of grass. They were stunned when they saw the enormous herds of bison, estimated in 1865 to be about sixty million in total. Their herds followed migratory routes. The bison (also called buffalo) is a noble animal that roamed the vast prairies in the greatest security. They are bigger than an ordinary bull and are most formidable-looking with a long, shaggy mane hanging over the neck and shoulders, sometimes extending down to the ground. They were hunted by most Indian tribes being killed by arrow and lance at full speed. Speed was a major attribute of the Red Indian.
Some tribes roamed the prairies on foot, such as the Blackfoot, Plains Cree, and Assiniboire. They were meat-eating peoples in contrast to the Chinese grassland peoples who use the water buffalo to produce rice. The Pawnee, Kansa and Iowa tribes settled along the banks of the rivers on the fringes of the grasslands. The life of the Red Indian was changed by the introduction of the horse by the Spanish (the North American horse was long extinct).
There was always a danger on the North American Plain: fire. Flooding is part and parcel of life on the Chinese Plain. The Red Indians were known as a fiery people, the Chinese had to control water, the Indian had to control fire. Both are a blessing in disguise as they provided a renewal of the grasses which sustained life; rice for the Chinese, grasses for the bison on which most Indian tribes were dependent. Indian hunters had systematically burnt forests to create new grasslands. The harnessing of water and fire gives us an aspect of grassland peoples which is lacking in the lives of the Bushman and Eskimo. Their aim was a greater productivity. The domestication of fire is comparable to the domestication of animals and plants.
The incorporation of selected grasses into the North American environment has been a precondition for the farming activities of the settler, the result being an agrarian way of living. But the basis was the dependency on the buffalo, for meat, for clothes, for tepees. The Blackfoot, Crow, Sioux and Assiniboine constructed their wigwams in the same way. Made from buffalo skins they were supported by pine poles some 9 metres high. A central fire was a necessity and there was an aperture at the apex to let out the smoke. They could be taken down in the space of a few minutes by the squaws, packed up and drawn behind a horse to another site as a sledge. A camp had about six hundred wigwams.
With the introduction of the horse the Red Indian could kill five hundred buffalo in a fortnight. Later the horse made it possible for these hunters to become herders (cowboys)
The Sioux became a dominating force on the plains. They were converts to nomadism and masters of the horseborne way of life. They inhabited the Black hills and were fearless in driving the Kiowa, Cheyenne and Crow away from the region.
Chinese
China as an example of intense human settlement and extremely productive agriculture is the subject for the next phase of our studies in the 7th class. Here people began to defy the environment. Two regions are conspicuous in this context, both situated on the plains of the Yellow River. The first touches the sea at the Gulf of Chili, the second around the junction of the Lo and the Yellow River. Here rice production is at its most intensive. First the grasslands had to be cleared and tilled. The clearing of the land demanded extensive labour. The work spread to the lower Yangste.
Paddy rice can sustain a large population but its production requires enormous amounts of labour. Mechanization is impossible in the muddy paddy-fields. Often the farmer is reliant on the water buffalo. In this way the land of the two rivers grew up in a society of settled peasants. Today China sustains a population greater than Europe and North America combined.
Chinese literature has always used the expression ‘one thousand li’. This evokes a feeling of great distance. At the time of the Han dynasty ‘ten thousand li’ was used in everyday language. Distance is an important factor in Chinese geopiety. The Chinese peasant lives in a self-contained world which provides his essential mode of living. This world is not the village itself but the immediate marketing community of about seven thousand inhabitants. People know each other within this area of some twenty square miles. Thus the traditional Chinese marketing community is a closely-knitted environment without clearly defined physical boundaries. In this environment everyone is occupied from small children to the elderly. All are dependent on the river. Every river has its own characteristics: length, depth, width, swiftness and colour. The size and majesty of the Yangtze surmounts them all with its power and never-changing brown colour. Throughout the ages the peasants have listened to the Yangste, they have tried to harness it. It has been diverted, channelled, directed and dammed. Today 75% of Chinese peasant farmers (of which 66% are women), depend on it. An enormous amount of water passes through the Yangste (only the Amazon is greater), carrying one thousand times more silt than the Mississippi. 350 million people live in its vicinity (more than the USA. and Canada combined).
Here no land is wild, no land is wasted, nothing is rushed or delayed. Everything is in constant change, only the mountains and rivers remain.
The Chinese civilization above all others has sought to control and transform nature. China’s first emperor, Ch’in Shih Huang, considered himself superior to the minor deities of mountains and streams.
China exemplifies a restless search for immobility.
Bushman
In contrast the home of the Bushman, the Kalahari desert, is one of the most sparsely populated regions on earth. However, these people live in extremely crowded conditions. The Bushman camp is arranged to ensure maximum contact. Not only are the huts very close to one another but things can be passed from person to person whilst remaining crouched on the floor.
When developing this theme with thirteen year olds we see that knowledge is not an end unto itself. We try to forward a point of view, a way of seeing. We realise how each element is integrated into a whole. The teacher’s presentation is therefore important. Our descriptions are aimed at providing the pupils with the possibility to grasp the idea that the earth presents us with innumerous possibilities rather than a series of given conditions. There is an enormous differentiation in the composition of humanity as in the landscapes and geographical conditions of the earth.
Our aim is to indicate the vitality and vivacity of these native peoples as they forge a life for themselves and for their culture.
In our day and age activity is largely based on trade and mechanics which can bring about a feeling of alienation. Our life in the western civilization is a part of a greater totality. Some peoples still live close to nature.
Restless activity is a feature of the human race. It is found on different levels. This profound restlessness reveals a discontent with the status quo and a desire to escape. This has never been so much in evidence as today. The overcoming of long distances needs organizational ability and technical insight as does the ability to hold on to a status quo. Hunter-gatherers do not seek change, pastoralists work depend on it.
There is a pastoralist, a hunter, a gatherer and a herder in every one of us.
Notes
1) Brierley, D.L.: In the Sea of Life Enisled, Antropos Akademi, Oslo 1998.
2) ibid. see chapter ‘Boundlessness’ page 111.
3) see further explanation on chora and apeiron in: Kahn, Charles H.: Anaximander and the Origins of Greek Cosmology. Columbia Univ. Press, New York, 1960.
4) Proclus, 410?-485. b. Constantinople. Greek philosopher in the Neoplantonic tradition and its last great teacher.
5) See Koyre, Alexandre: From the Close World to the Infinite Universe. New York, 1962.
6) Bruno,Giordano (1548?-1600) b. Nola. Italian philosopher, forced to leave the Dominican order because of his unorthodox views. Travelled widely, lecturing and writing. Opponent of Aristotelian logic.
7) from Donne, John.: ‘Anatomy of the World’.
8) see reference in the introduction to Brierley, David L.: In the Sea of Life Enisled pages 10-12.
9) see Wordsworth, William: The Excursion book IV, lines 978-92. Penguin Books, London 1971
10 )see Kant, Immanuel: Concerning the Ultimate Ground of the Differentiation of Directions of Space.. George Allen. London 1901.
11 )see Morleau-Ponty, Maurice.: Phenomenology of Perception
12)see Kant, Immanuel.: Dreams of a Spirit-Seer Elucidated by Dreams of Metaphysics
13 )see Husserl.E.:The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology
14) Brierley, David L.: In the Sea of Life Enisled Anropos Akademi, Oslo 1998 -see references to the work of Ritter and his influence on the Waldolf curriculum in the introduction to the introductory volume of this work pages 7-21
15) ibid.
16) see ref. to survey in The Sunday Times 16th Oct.,1988 concerning cardinal directions and the geographical orientation of the schoolchild as a basis for knowledge. Spain’s directional relationship to England was a problem few could solve. See note 1) Chapter XI: The World in the Palm of my Hand.
17) Steiner, Rudolf: Menschenerkenntnis und Unterrichtsgestaltung. Stuttgart, June 1921.
18) for further reference see the work of Edward S. Casey and others.
19)»occupies a privileged position» («eine ausgezeichnete Stellung»).
20) Stevens, Wallace: Tea at the Palaz of Hoon.
21)Heidegger,Martin: Conversation on a Country Path.
22) Bachelard, Gaston: The Poetics of Space
23) see Deleuze,Gilles & Guattari, Felix: A Thousand Plateaus. In particular note Chapter 12 entitled ‘1227: Treatise on Nomadology.
24) see the chapter on ‘Boundlessness’ in the first volume of this work, page 111.
25) see Thesiger, Wilfred: Desert, Marsh and Mountain: The World of a Nomad, William Collins, London 1979.
26) see Steiner’s lecture already quoted from 21st Sept.1921.
27) Steiner, Rudolf: A Modern Art of education.14 lectures 5-17th Aug. 1923. Rudolf Steiner Press, London 1972 Steiner, Rudolf: Education as a Social Problem. Anthroposophical Press, New York 1969
28) Kandinsky, Wassily: Point and Line to Plain. Dover, New York 1979.
29) Steiner,Rudolf: Menschenerkenntniss und Unterrichtsgestaltung,Stuttgart,June 1921.