Postscript: Landscapes and Health as Representations of Cultural Diversity

Abstract

Cultures are reflected by their varying representations in landscape and perception of nature. The perception and acceptance of shaping the landscape as spaces according to social needs and preferences in urban and in rural areas are important dimensions of identification and health and well-being of the population inhabiting these spaces for long. Wherever human beings live, they appropriate nature as ­culture (Seeland 1997), i.e. they are inevitably shaping landscapes in developing their own culture. This process is a practical and symbolical one. These perceptions, beliefs and values find their material and immaterial expressions in planning and preferences for certain elements such as forests, parks, or open landscapes. In ­processes of encoding and enciphering culture into landscape and its re-modelling from time to time due to new ideas and demands of its use and management. In order to understand these cultural key concepts, they have to be read and interpreted. Landscapes are thus representations of entire life-worlds and each of these cultural views reveals that natural surroundings can only be understood by deciphering the social essence which is represented in them. Therefore it requires keys to read and understand the various cultural landscapes of the world.