Espace géographique

Around territories
Joël Bonnemaison

Abstract
Man is a cultural animal. Space for geographers is both a structure and a system in which social and economic parameters play
a role; but for the men who live in it space is also a territory, which they see through the lenses of their culture. This territory is
linked to the ethnic identity and the culture that shape it. Translated into spatial terms, the concept of culture inevitably calls forth
that of territory. In fact it is the existence of a culture which creates a territory, and it is the territory which embodies the symbolic
relationship between culture and space. Territory is then a "geosymbol", i.e. a place, an itinerary, a space, which acquires in the
eyes of ethnic groups and peoples the cultural and symbolic dimension in which their values are rooted and through which their
identity is affirmed.

Citer ce document / Cite this document :

Bonnemaison Joël. Around territories. In: Espace géographique. Espaces, modes d'emploi. Two decades of l'Espace
géographique , an anthology. Special issue in English. 1993. pp. 205-220 ;

doi : 10.3406/spgeo.1993.3203

http://www.persee.fr/doc/spgeo_0046-2497_1993_hos_1_1_3203

Document généré le 06/09/2016

 Around territories
Joël Bonnemaison
ORSTOM, Vanuatu
ABSTRACT. — Man is a cultural animal. Space for geographers
is both a structure and a system in which social and economic
parameters play a role; but for the men who live in it space is also
a territory, which they see through the lenses of their culture. This
territory is linked to the ethnic identity and the culture that shape
it. Translated into spatial terms, the concept of culture inevitably
calls forth that of territory. In fact it is the existence of a culture
which creates a territory, and it is the territory which embodies
Foreword
This text was written by a "tropicalist" geographer who has
always worked on islands and moreover, as if following an
inevitable inclination, on islands of increasingly smaller
size. This does not mean that I wish to compare myself to
Robinson Crusoe, but this detail may be of some
significance if one wants to place what follows in the right
context The paper deals with traditional insular societies,
splintered into a multitude of small groups independent of
each other. The problem is whether the approach that I was
led to adopt in order to understand such societies may or
may not bring something to geographers working in
different societies and different physical environments, in
particular those who study "large-scale spaces" and urban
or industrial societies.
the symbolic relationship between culture and space. Territory is
then a "geosymbol", i.e. a place, an itinerary, a space, which
acquires in the eyes of ethnic groups and peoples the cultural and
symbolic dimension in which their values are rooted and through
which their identity is affirmed.
CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY, MYTHS, TERRITORY
Finally, this text was not written in the usual way papers
are. It is much more of an itinerary than a demonstration. It
includes many reflections which matured during the course
of a largely insular existence — insular in more senses than
the merely material. Confronted with different societies, I
first sought to understand, which led me to questioning
some of the ideas and methods that were initially mine.
The evolution of ideas and perceptions and the displacement
of poles of interest which are at the heart of contemporary
societies are all factors which have raised new challenges for
the social sciences and opened new perspectives for them.
Such evolution also concerns geography: whereas it initially
studied regions and modes of living, it became interested
after World War II in social and quantitative analysis as well
as landscape survey. To some, geography today appears to
Joel Bonnemaison
unveil class relationships and to be a possible ground for
studying the revolutionary strategy that could upset them (1).
The emergence of what is called the "new geography" has
often stemmed mostly from concepts developed in
neighbouring disciplines. Thus does landscape analysis
owe much to the development of structuralism in ethnology
and linguistics: a landscape is a visual structure in which
one may see the dynamic relations between a series of
physical, social and economic factors. The approach of
social geography is likewise enriched by concepts and
concerns hitherto neglected by classical geography and
which derive from advances in econometrics or from the
refining of marxist or neo-marxist concepts in the social
sciences. In other words, geography is growing because the
neighbouring economic and social sciences have benefited
from new concepts that, in turn, have generated new
thought patterns in our discipline.
Conversely, space, the heart and very subject of the "new
geography", has become a new idea which urban planners,
economists, sociologists and linguists are taking over.
Out of these reciprocal encroachments on what each social
science considers as its respective province, should emerge
a fertile ground for new ideas and concepts. In the long term
however the increasingly central role played by the notion
of space within the whole of the social sciences may leave
geographers feeling somewhat dispossessed. This should
encourage us to define our specific tasks more clearly and
to be less hesitant to explore new areas of research .
The study of the "social field" in geography has allowed
for a better definition of space by conceptualising it in
terms of structures, social relations, economic flows and
modes of production. There are however other, parallel,
ways of deciphering reality: have we really exhausted the
subject if we continue to pose it in such terms only? It
seems that the integration of the "cultural field" constitutes,
now more than ever, a new idea for geographers.
(1) Regarding this issue, see Lacoste Y. (1976). La
géographie, ça sert d'abord à faire la guerre. Paris: Maspero. Also
Harvey D. (1973). Social Justice and the City. London: Arnold.
© Two decades of L'Espace géographique: an anthology
I. The integration of the "cultural field"
Renewed attention is being paid today to culture as an
irreducible factor. Culture no longer appears as that vague,
blurred superstructure within which an overly materialistic
approach has attempted to confine it. Culture tends to be
understood today as another side of reality, a system of
symbolic representation with an existence of its own and, if
this reflection is pursued to its end, as a "vision of the world"
which is consistent and which affects the relation between
societies and space. To geographers, culture is rich in
meaning for it is one response, at the ideological and
spiritual levels, to the problem of collective existence within
a certain natural environment, within a particular spatial
context, and in a specific historical and economic
conjuncture which is called into question by each successive
generation. Consequently, the cultural factor appears as the
invisible side of reality: it is both inheritance and project
and, in both cases, it is confronted with the historical reality
which sometimes hides it, particularly when problems of
survival predominate, or on the contrary reveals it, which
seems to have been the case in recent years. In brief, cultural
analysis in geography can be a new approach towards
discovering what Claude Raffestin calls the "geostructure",
i.e. a "real system to be made intelligible" (2).
So far it is mostly English-speaking geographers, especially
Americans, who have developed the idea of cultural
geography as a distinctive branch of geography. Yet this
area still lacks a really convincing body of work, perhaps
for want of a fully-developed theoretical approach. At the
present time, Ann Buttimer's research (3) is the most novel
even though the deliberately philosophical approach of her
papers as well as her references to phenomenology or to
Heidegger may appear somewhat disconcerting.
(2) Raffestin C. (1977). "Paysage et Territorialité". Cahiers
de Géographie du Québec, vol. 21, n° 53-54, p. 123-134. This
interesting article is quoted several times here. See also the entire
contents of the same issue devoted to cultural geography.
(3) Buttimer A. (1969). "Social space in interdisciplinary
perspective". Geographical Review, n° 59, p. 417-426, or
"Grasping the dynamism of Lifeworid". Ibid., vol. 66, n° 2,
1976, p. 277-282.
Ann Buttimer's approach is based on the realisation that
geostructures, as deciphered by the language of regionalism,
that of landscape analysis, and that of society, always refer
to the idea of vision, and then of structure. Life as
experienced is not taken into account. The problem is not so
much how to conceptualise as how to come to an
"existential geography", capable of restoring the dynamics
and relational experience of the "lifeworld": in fact "social
space" is essentially a subjective and cultural notion
according to Ann Buttimer, who is reviving some of the
ideas of the French geographer Max Sorre (4).
Closer to us, our cousins in Quebec, who have inherited a
unique historical experience, are developing a singular
viewpoint. If stated in terms of a specific culture as well as
of social and economic dependence, the phenomenon
appears both insurmountable and fragile because it is
primarily based on determination and awareness.
Geographers from Quebec are sensitive to this fact and are
trying to "discuss the bases of a theory of the cultural field,
as a component element of the region" (5). Because
explanations that rest on the logic of economic objectivity
not only explain very little of the situation of Quebec, but
also run the risk of giving a false image, too easy to
"reduce" so to speak, local geographers are redefining their
approach in different terms: "one of the tasks undertaken
by geography in this country is thus becoming a study of
the representations, the values and ideologies through
which and according to which a territory grows and takes
shape" (6). This is an excellent definition of what the
cultural viewpoint may bring to geography.
The affirmation of the primacy of the cultural perspective
is also found in the ecological and regionalist movement
Beyond intellectual fashion, the ecological viewpoint has
renewed the approach to the issue of the relations between
(4) Anne Buttimer often mentions Max Sorre's work,
notably Les fondements de la géographie humaine. Paris: 1943; or
the surveys of Paris by Chombart de Lauwe and his team.
(5) Bélanger M. (1977). "De la géographie comme culture à
la géographie des cultures", an introduction to Cahiers de
géographie du Québec, vol. 21, n° 53-54, p. 117-122, devoted to
cultural geography.
(6) Bélanger M. Op. c'a.
human beings and their environment. The man-nature
dichotomy is not accepted, which means that the very
notion of "progress" is challenged — i.e. the notion of
linear time evolving, at the end of which men, having
imposed their own laws on nature, will in some way
conquer and fully domesticate it The ecological movement
operates at several levels, but in its most profound sense it
represents the determination to place man within nature, as
an animal being — this is the biological and ethological
aspect — , but also, and more fundamentally, as a cultural
being, which implies a definition of cultural ecology that
concerns both geographers and anthropologists. Another
geographer from Quebec, Eric Waddell, defines the cultural
ecology viewpoint as follows: "man is pre-adapted at the
biological level... but he owes his success (if one may call
it that) to his cultural abilities. The role that is attributed to
culture applies as much to the symbolic area as it does to
the materialistic area... The meaning that man gives to
things becomes as important as things themselves" (7).
Some tropicalist geographers are also indebted to the
cultural ecology viewpoint Michel Benoît's work on the
Peul people (8) is a true piece of ethnogeography, which
restores its lost dignity to the old idea of "way of life". A
"way of life", according to M. Benoît, "is a set of habits
that enable the group which adopts them to secure its
continued existence". In order to understand the Peuls and
their nomadic lifestyle, the author has tried to understand
the Peul vision of the world and their spirituality. From this
there derive a number of practices adapted to a given
natural environment which constitute a particular response
to economic constraints. M. Benoît concludes that "the
concern of the Peuls from Boobola is not possession, but
penetration, of space".
Finally, there is among French geographers a converging
interest in new questions. Armand Fremont (9) has built a
(7) Waddell E. (1976). "Valeurs religieuses et rapports
homme-milieu. Perspectives de l'écologie culturelle
anglo-américaine". Protée, Spring 1976, p. 11-17.
(8) BENorr M. (1979). "Le chemin des Peul du Boobola".
Travaux et Documents de l'ORSTOM, n° 101. Paris: ORSTOM.
(9) Fremont A. (1976). La région, espace vécu. Paris: PUF.
Joël Bonnemaison
synthesis around the concept of "space as experienced"
which aims at rediscovering the notion of region: "the
space of men" is thereby both rejuvenated and
reinterpreted. Even if it is not fully explored, the cultural
dimension underlies this type of approach. The space-as-
experienced concept represents a first step towards a more
central question, what Gilles Sautter calls "the inhabitant's
eye" (10). To G. Sautter, there is indeed, between human
beings and their landscapes, a secret complicity which
cannot be accounted for by "the rational and scientific
discourse that dissects and classifies". Landscape is both
"the extension and the reflection of a society while being at
the same time a support offered to individuals to see
themselves through their own vision of different landscapes
and different societies" (11). Affinities between man and
places, between societies and their landscapes, are loaded
with emotions and express a cultural relationship in the
broader sense of the term. It is no wonder actually that
tropicalist geographers, permeated as they are with the
spirit and values of traditional societies, are those who have
most forcefully voiced the question of the specific
character of space in each civilisation.
Jean Gallais has thus set against the "smooth and
homogeneous standard space" of industrial societies the
"discontinuous and partitioned space" of the traditional
tropical world, where distances are not objective, but
"affective, structural, and ecological" (12). In the inner area
of the Niger delta as described by Gallais, each ethnic
group links up with one component of the ecological
environment to initiate a system that allows the group to
survive through a specific vision of the world. Following in
the footsteps of other tropicalist geographers, such as
Gourou of course, but also Sautter, Pélissier, Delvert, and
Raison, J. Gallais has opened a real debate which is at the
core of the cultural approach: "in pre-industrial tropical
societies, the interplay of structural, emotional and
ecological distances determines a space fraught with
(10) Sautter G. (1979). "Le paysage comme connivence".
Hérodote, n° 16, p. 40-67.
(11) Sautter G. Op. cit.
(12) Gallais J. (1976). "De quelques aspects de l'espace
vécu dans les civilisations du monde tropical". L'Espace
géographique, vol. 5, n° 1, p. 5-10.
© Two decades of L'Espace géographique: an anthology
experience of great wealth and inexhaustible variety... It
seems to me that the search for these limits and the analysis
of their meaning should follow a subjective approach
adapted to regional cultures and civilisations" (13). The
central role of culture is thereby reaffirmed; space is
subjective and linked to a particular ethnic group, to culture
and to regional civilisation...
All these texts are convergent Research around the concept
of "lived-in space", as well as cultural ecology, the
increasingly ethnogeographic inclination of tropicalist
geographers, G. Sautter's queries about the complicity-
landscape, all point to a drastic change. Indeed, the
deliberately dry geographic discourse of today only expresses
part of reality; there are other levels of relationships between
man and his soil, between man and his landscape.
In my opinion, ethnicity and territory are the two concepts
that command the cultural approach and their meaning
should first be investigated.
2. Ethnic groups and cultural groups
Geographers, even tropicalist geographers, only use the
concept of ethnicity with caution and with some reluctance,
probably because it was born in a given ideological
context, linked to the colonial past, and was for a long time
confined to a narrow definition.
Yet the concept of ethnicity is essential because it is
basically linked to the notion of cultural area. To a
tropicalist geographer, ethnicity provides the first
encounter — and often also the first shock — with culture.
In fact, ethnicity should be seen in a wider context, without
reference to a common biological origin. Whether an
ethnic group has common ancestors (real or supposedly so)
is a secondary issue. An ethnic group exists first and
foremost through the consciousness it has of itself and
through the culture it creates. The sum total of beliefs,
rituals and practices on which culture is founded and which
makes it possible for an ethnic group to reproduce itself, is
elaborated and perpetuated within the group. In other
(13) Gallais J. Op. cit.
words, the ethnic entity is what is elsewhere called a
cultural group, but its outlines are clearly delineated in
traditional civilisations because they are often linked to a
political expression — chieftaindoms, kingdoms, even
nations — and to a geographical expression, i.e. a territory
or at least a specific area of spatial distribution.
Without ethnic identity as a vector, there can be neither
culture nor cultural visioa Ethnicity builds up culture and
conversely its identity is founded on the existence of
culture. In this respect one may speak of ethnicity in
relation to any human group whose social function or sheer
geographical existence results in a specific culture.
Given that ethnicity is undoubtedly a fact in traditional
societies, in particular those of the tropical world of today,
can it be applied to the study of urban or industrial societies?
The answer may well be yes. As one looks at a specific
socio-professional category, a specific "geographical
society" in the sense J.P. Raison means it (14), a specific
age group, a particular group of militants in a political
party or of members of a church, one wonders whether
these groups may be interpreted, other things being equal,
as "cultural groups", i.e. genuine ethnic groups with their
own behaviour, with a collective identity expressed both
through a certain vision of the world and in specific
territoriality patterns. Within the French social body,
teachers, politicians, so-called "intellectual" groups,
businessmen, workers in a given industrial sector or labour
union, clergymen, policemen, delinquents, or marginal
groups, as they have been called, all seem to be ethnic
groups in the wider sense of the term as much as social
categories or groups. These "modern ethnic groups" are
much less clearly delineated than traditional ethnic groups,
as they have no "territories" as such, although they do
have their own places and spaces. They also have their
own codes, specific papers, tastes and points of interest
common to all within the group, a collective
consciousness with regard to those on the "outside", what
(14) Raison J.P. (1976). "Espaces signifiants et perspectives
régionales à Madagascar". L'Espace géographique, vol. 5, n° 3,
p. 189-203. A geographical society is defined through the places
of residence of its members.
they do in their leisure time, whether they do or don't go
away on holiday, etc.
Within these modern ethnic groups there is internal
competition for a certain type of power with the emergence
of gurus or masters who found and renovate cultural
visions. In modern urban society, the equivalent of ethnic
groups are complex groups with unstable outlines,
themselves stratified into a very large number of micro-
groups, each with a specific discourse. They form the
actual context to our lives.
An American best-seller published a few years ago is a
good introduction to the following digression: the author,
Erica Jong (15), gives a light-hearted description of her
marital and extra-marital troubles with a whole social
category to which she gives the exotic name "jivaros".
These are New York's psychoanalysts: she describes their
mythologies, customs, rites and lifestyles with ferocious
humour. The choice of the name Erica Jong gives to
Sigmund Freud's North American disciples, which is that
of an Amerindian head-hunting tribe, is inspired of course
by the American slang word "shrink", which designates a
psychoanalyst The author travels among psychoanalysts
like an explorer in the midst of a strange ethnic group that
speaks some esoteric language, and whose complex rituals
refer to the teachings of venerated gurus, the "founding
heroes" who
of their
playcultural
the samevision
role for
similar
Australian
to the aborigènes
"civilising
and the peoples of Oceania.
The concept of ethnicity may be understood as the field of
existence and culture which is the collective experience of
a number of individuals. This should be understood not as
a rigid and biological reality but as a dynamic reality
determined by reference to one or several cultural models,
a reality that can only be grasped at a relatively small scale,
that of the group concerned. Indeed culture, as we
understand it, refers to the individual's day-to-day
experience. As a consequence, wide-ranging concepts such
as that for example of "national culture", notably within
centralised states, can only be very vague because they
(15) Jong E Le complexe d Icare. Livre de Poche.
Joël Bonnemaison
function on too wide a scale to be relevant. A complex
social body, such as French society, may be perceived not
only as a national entity (the classical viewpoint) or as a
series of social classes that are antagonistic or tactically
allied (the marxist viewpoint), but as a collection of various
ethnic identities integrating original cultural visions and
whose relative positions are based on dynamic and
competitive relationships.
The concept of ethnicity and cultural group is of interest to
geographers because it gives rise to the idea of "territory-
space". Indeed territoriality stems from ethnicity in that it is
first and foremost the relation, experienced in cultural terms,
between a human group and a web of interdependent places
with a hierarchical order whose physical representation
constitutes a spatial system or, in other words, a territory.
3. Territory and territoriality
In order to make myself clear, I should stress that, as I see
it, just as the concept of culture is linked to that of ethnicity,
any culture likewise, beyond its specific discourse, is
embodied in a territorial form. There is no ethnic or cultural
group that does not, in one way or another, invest a territory,
both in a physical and in a cultural sense.
The scientific concept of territory was born with ethology.
In 1920, Elliot Howard, a British ornithologist who spent
many hours studying the social life of warblers, was the
first to define it. He came up with a number of concepts
that were revolutionary in his time. Bird society is
territorial: conflicts between individuals bear on the limits
of an exclusive territory whose possession determines
social hierarchy and access to females (16).
Animal territoriality according to Howard may be defined
"as the characteristic behaviour adopted by an organism to
take possession of a territory and defend it against
members of its own species" (17).
(16) Howard E. (1920). Territory in birds life. New York,
quoted in Ardrey R. (1966). U impératif territorial. Paris.
HallE.T. (1970). La dimension cachée. Paris: Le Seuil, et
Raffestin C. Op. cit.
(17) Howard E. Op. cit.
© Two decades of L'Espace géographique: an anthology
Animal behaviour, perceived as "innate territoriality", was
later extended to other animal societies by ethologists, and
then by some to the study of human behaviour (18). This
implied a philosophical and epistemological step that, not
without passion, many considered invalid. This is an
altogether different issue.
In animal societies, territory is indeed linked to the idea of
biological appropriation: it is exclusive, at least as far as the
members of one particular species are concerned, and it is
limited by a boundary. Within the animal territory, ethologists
distinguish a central core, a safety area, and at its periphery a
border area that gradually degenerates into a danger zone as
one goes further and further from the core. This is where
howler monkeys go every day to insult one another and then
to bombard members of neighbouring gangs and sometimes,
in rare cases, to fight (19). At the periphery of the territory,
the border appears as a dangerous space, an area for
competition, where the animal, alone or in a group, ventures
and challenges strangers from the neighbouring group. It
does not penetrate the neighbouring territory, and if it
happens to venture into it, it appears so inhibited that it will
be the loser in the fight that inevitably ensues.
Human societies have a different conception of the territory:
it is not necessarily closed, it is not always uniform, nor
does it necessarily lead to stable behaviour. The example of
Oceania indicates that, before being a boundary, a territory
is above all a hierarchy of places which are connected to a
network of itineraries. An ethnic group will come into being
and gain more and more strength in proportion to its being
firmly rooted in its soil and to the more or less elaborate
links it maintains with a space that is structured,
crisscrossed and polarised according to its own ends and
symbolical representations. Within this territory-space,
groups and ethnic groups experience a certain type of
relationship between sedentariness and mobility, a
relationship which, as it constitutes a balance between two
(18) Notably Eibl-Eibesfeldt I. (1976). L'homme
programmé. Paris: Flammarion; Ardrey R. Op. cit.; Morris D.
(1970). Le singe nu. Paris. As for Konrad Lorenz, he has been
much more cautious when making inferences from his own
discoveries.
(19) Ardrey R. Op. cit.
contrary notions, obviously varies according to the social
status, lifestyle, period and type of society concerned. It
may take multiple cultural forms.
Territoriality can thus be much better defined as the social
and cultural relations that a group maintains with the web
of places and itineraries that make up its territory than as a
reference to the usual concepts of biological appropriation
and boundary. There are also populations for whom the
notion of boundary hardly exists, which does not mean that
they have no territory. Nomads or certain hunter-gatherers
use some routes within areas with flexible outlines that
may be shared with others, although such cases are not
frequent. These populations are also connected with a
number of fixed "key nodes" and acknowledged itineraries
that determine "wandering territories".
Moreover, even among rooted and sedentary peoples, the
notion of boundary is not so essential as is often believed
In Oceania many Melanesian territories have never had a
boundary-line. Outside of the central core of habitat and
cultivation areas, the frontier is frequently represented as a
zone with blurred outlines, left to forests and the
wanderings of malevolent spirits. Such buffer zones —
areas of deep forest and fear-generating places — separate
political groups from one another, and one only ventures
into them with caution.
In other cases, territories associated with political groups
are spintered, such as the Shepherd Islands in Vanuatu,
and fit with one another to form a complex jigsaw-puzzle.
Such "archipelagic" territories are a collection of named
and appropriated places, geographically scattered and
surrounded by spaces with blurred outlines that are limited
not by lines, but by a few outstanding points: rocks, trees,
slopes, etc.
Finally, in traditional and "primitive" societies, the
territory may be fiercely closed, as it may be open to allies
and neighbours. In most cases it is alternately one and the
other, with mobility outside the territory being culturally
formalised (20).
(20) Bonnemaison J. (1979). "Les voyages et
l'enracinement". L'Espace géographique, vol. 8, n° 4, p. 303-318.
The extension, quasi-universal today, of the concept of
boundary, standing as a dividing line — when it is not a
wall or electrified wire — between two different
geopolitical entities, appears as a contemporary
development attributable to "progress" and the growth of
nation-states. It is not at all certain whether the enclosing
boundary was present in all traditional societies. A territory
is therefore something other than an enclosed space
protected by a border. It is really a "core", i.e. a centre,
much more than an enclosure. It also represents a type of
emotional and cultural relation to a land before being a
reflex of appropriation or exclusion of strangers.
4. Towards a geocultvral analysis
As translated into spatial terms, the idea of culture cannot be
separated from the idea of territory. It is indeed through the
existence of a culture that a territory is created, and it is
through the territory that the symbolic relation between
culture and space is strengthened and expressed. One can
therefore call cultural approach, or geocultural analysis, all
that consists in bringing to light the relationships which exist
at the spatial level between the ethnic group and its culture.
The whole system of religious and moral values that
underlies a culture is normally expressed in a discourse
and, in traditional societies, in a corpus of myths and
traditions which, in their turn, explain the symbolic
organisation of rituals. It is often through rites that a
society expresses its deeper values and reveals its social
organisation. In Australia as in Oceania, the cultural
representation and the interpretation of myths also create a
"sacred geography" formed by a web of "holy places" (21).
The reading of a myth thus ceases to be only literary or
structural; it also becomes spatial. The geography of places
visited by the civilising hero, the holy man or the guru, the
routes he followed, the places where he revealed his magic
power, all weave a symbolic spatial structure that shapes
and creates the territory. Such sacred geography gives
weight to the "founding myth"; it embodies it in a piece of
land and reveals it as the gesture that creates a society.
(21) On this subject, see Mircea Euade's works on religion
in primitive societies, in particular Religions australiennes. Paris:
Payot, 1972
Joel Bonnemaison
Geographers therefore should try as hard as they can to
understand the conception of the world that is at the core of
the group or society they are studying — not so much to
analyse the cultural representation in itself as to survey its
spatial expressions. The purpose is to find the places where
culture is expressed and, furthermore, the sort of secret and
emotional relation through which men are linked to their
land and on which their cultural identity is likewise founded.
At the same time the following factors should also be
studied* the social and hierarchical organisation as well as
the political, social and economic functions of the group or
society under study. As these multiply through space, they
reveal structures of power and control. Such "social space",
space produced, in a way, by society, is another concept
that geographers and anthropologists have been using with
increasing frequency (22).
The geocultural type of analysis cannot neglect or separate
those two complementary aspects. Territory is both "social
space" and "cultural space"; it is associated with social as
much as symbolic functions.
Some authors however, geographers in particular, do not
accept that the cultural field may have a life of its own; they
believe that by dealing with a social system they also deal
with the relevant culture. They see culture as a "residue" or a
vague superstructure, a sort of intellectual "treat" to be left to
researchers yearning for aesthetics or religiosity, whereas
serious researchers focus on genuinely "scientific" questions,
i.e. social and economic factors. Such an oversimplifying
approach totally ignores a part of the individual, at the same
time as it narrows down the scope of research (23).
Culture and society are the two sides of the same reality,
the social function and the symbolic function are
enlightened by each other. Yet there is a basic difference
between social space and cultural space: they function on
(22) See Taillard C. (1977). "L'Espace social: quelques
réflexions à propos de deux exemples au Laos" in "Espace social
et analyse des sociétés en Asie du Sud-Est". ASEMI, vol. 8, n° 2;
or, among anthropologists, Condominas G. (1980). L'espace
social: à propos de l'Asie du S.E. — appendix to the introduction
on the concept of culture. Paris: Flammarion.
© Two decades of L'Espace géographique: an anthology
différent planes and from different perspectives. Social
space is produced, cultural space is animated The former
is conceived in terms of organisation and production, the
latter in terms of signification and symbolic relation. The
former is a framework, the latter conveys meaning.
Cultural geography will not exist until it has defined a
space of its own, a space that is not necessarily
autonomous but which has some consistency.
All researchers studying traditional and "primitive"
societies start wondering one day about what lies beyond
geostructures and about the reality of a cultural space
which they can feel rather than perceive. The aim of
geocultural analysis is to try and determine the specific
space wherein culture nests. It is not a simple endeavour,
because culture does not organise space: it penetrates it
Culture outlines a semiographic system made of
intertwining spatial signs, shapes and systems which
constitute the, shall we say, "geosymbolic" representation
of men's conceptions of their world and their own destiny.
Space is thus crisscrossed with territories which are social
on the surface and, deeper down, cultural.
As the earthly repository of a vision of the world, the
territory thereby becomes the very subject of the
geocultural approach. In traditional societies, the territory
fulfills two main functions: political (security-related) and
cultural (identity-related). As problems of identity and
security vary according to periods and types of
civilisations, the limits of the territory as well as its
coherence, its boundaries and its polarisation systems may
change. A territory may disappear in certain political and
cultural contexts because its culture and ethnic identity
have died, as is the case today with many peasant cultures
in western Europe. Territories however may also be reborn
(23) Adopting such an oversimplifying approach in
geography today would seem all the more outdated as other social
sciences now tend to grant an increasingly larger role to
"founding myths" and to the sacred or religious dimension in all
societies, even the most self-styled secularised societies. On this, see
Claval P. (1980). Les mythes fondateurs des Sciences Sociales.
Paris: PUF. See also the interview of Vernant J.P. (1980).
"What is the use of religions...". Le Nouvel Observateur, n° 808
of May 5, 1980; or the articles of Clastre P. (1980). Recherches
d anthropologie politique. Paris: Le Seuil.
elsewhere under new and astonishing forms, as in certain
North American cities, to the amazement of sociologists.
The space of man really seems to be territorial in nature: it
changes, dies or is reborn according to the life and destiny
of the cultural groups that shape it.
As a consequence the cultural approach primarily defmes a
cultural space whose dimensions are determined both in
territorial and in temporal terms. Territory and culture can
only be grasped within a historical perspective and as a
mobile and contingent reality.
Just as cultural space represents a historical reality it is
also, being the sum of ail its territories, a land-based
reality. Being space lived in and apprehended through a
certain vision and certain cultural values, the territory is
constructed both as a system and as a symbol. It is a system
because it is hierachically organised in such a way as to
fulfill the needs and functions of the relevant group. It is a
symbol because it is shaped around geographical nodes
which represent the political and religious values
commanding the group's vision of the world. There is
therefore a permanent interrelation, as well as a sort of law
of symmetry, between the social construction, the symbolic
function and the territorial organisation of a human group.
Landscape is a visual reflection of this, but a large part of it
is invisible because it is connected with the underlying
world of emotions, mental attitudes and cultural
representations. This is to some extent what G. Sautter was
trying to express when he sought to define the complicity
between men and their landscape, a landscape which is
both the medium and the reflection of their cultural
sensibility. The complicity-landscape is often a meeting
place between men and the land, a place that brings out
quasi-sensual emotions. This is where the territory
becomes invested with all the significance which comes
from centuries of peasant civilisation; it is both their roots
and their culture. It is no coincidence if these two words,
"root" and "culture", belong to the same semantic field and
both refer to the land that feeds.
Nevertheless the territorial nature of a group or an
individual cannot be studied only through their territorial
system. Territoriality expresses behaviour: it encompasses
both the relation to the territory and beyond this the
relation to "outside" space. It includes all that keeps man in
the places which are his and all that drives him out, where
"space" begins.
Any analysis of territoriality is thus based on both an
internal and an external relation: territoriality represents a
continual balancing between what is fixed and what is
mobile, between a "secure" territory as a symbol of identity
on the one hand and on the other a space open onto
freedom and sometimes onto alienation.
It seems that an ethnic group is maintained only as long as
its territoriality is preserved. There is a very strong link
between cultural vision and territory as a real (or mythical)
field of existence. Depriving an ethnic group of its territory
is the surest way of seeing it disappear into a sociological
jumble such as the slums of the Third World for instance.
In such places of acculturation and uprootedness, the only
way for a group to survive is to create a new territory,
however small, or, if this is impossible, to recreate one
elsewhere through dreams and myths...
The ultimate meaning of the cultural approach in
geography undoubtedly lies in rediscovering the richness
and depth of the bond between man and places. Such a
bond varies according to times and civilisations, it can be
real or it can be a mere dream. All attempts at explaining it
by oversimplifying it through a materialistic approach are
useless. There are many examples of this in the modem
world; diasporas scattered all over the world remain united
only as long as their mythical link with the lost territory is
maintained, or through the hope of getting it back. "Next
year in Jerusalem..." could be the symbol for all diasporas,
be they Jewish, Palestinian or other. The hopes of peoples
centre on specific places fraught with history and with
symbols. Cutting peoples off from their territories is bound
to look like ethnocide (24).
(24) For the meaning of "ethnocide", see the definition by
Clastre P. (1974). Encyclopedia Univer salis. Paris: "Ethnocide
is the suppression of cultural differences deemed to be inferior
and wrong, it is the implementation [...] of a plan to reduce to
sameness (the Amazon Indian is suppressed because he is
different and reduced to the likeness of all citizens of Brazil). In other
words, ethnocide brings about the dissolution of the multiple into
the One".
Joel Bonnemaison
5. Space as symbol
By leading to a more elaborate analysis of the concepts of
culture, ethnic identity and territory, the cultural approach
leads us to define another type of space, that of
geosymbols. A geosymbol may be defined as a place, an
itinerary or an area which, for religious, political or
cultural reasons, takes on, in the eyes of some peoples and
ethnic groups, a symbolic meaning which reinforces their
sense of identity.
Space as studied by geographers is a three-tier
construction. The first tier may be called structural or
objective space, the second lived-in space, and the third
cultural space. These three levels refer to one and the same
reality, but they imply different approaches and methods
of research .
Of these three levels, that of objective or structural space is
the one which has so far been most closely studied. Any
society structures its initial space according to its own
ends, functions and level of technology. Societies adapt
themselves to a specific natural environment and a given
spatial configuration and, in so doing, interpret and
manufacture their own space. There follow "regions",
nodes, axes, flows, in short a geographical structure. We
are on familiar ground here: geographical space is a set of
geostructures that are stuck on, or fitted into, a natural
environment, and whose landscapes are as many visual
keys. Specialists of social and economic geography,
advocates of the landscape approach and quantitative
geographers have all explored this first spatial level.
Beyond space as structure, research on "lived-in space",
such as that of A. Buttimer or A. Fremont for example,
brings in a new dimension that offers more subjective and
existential data. Indeed space as structure is not experienced
in the same way by societies, let alone by the individuals or
groups within those societies. Lived-in space or "space as
movement" (to use A. Fremont's terms) is made up of the
totality of places and journeys that are customary to a group
or individual. It is consequently a familiar and recognisable
space related to everyday life. This subjective and familiar
space however, being connected with a given status and
social behaviour, does not necessarily correspond to a
"cultural space", even less to a territory.
© Two decades of L'Espace géographique: an anthology
Culture in fact encompasses "life as experienced" as much
as it transcends it Cultural representations go beyond the
horizon of daily living: they are born of individual
sensitivities and the search for meaning. It is well known
that men often live, fight and die for chimeras, that is, for a
"reality" which is not so much experienced as imagined.
As far as any geographer is concerned, culture is deciphered
"on the ground", in other words, like a network of values
engraved in territorial space. In geographical terms, this
means that there can be no coherent group, or ethnic group,
or even culture, without a territory as its medium. Conversely,
territories, places and, beyond these, landscapes can be
understood only in reference to the universe of culture.
A reflection on culture inevitably leads to a careful analysis
of the role of symbolism in space. Symbols will have all
the more vigour and prominence as they are embodied in
space. Cultural space is a geosymbolic space fraught with
emotion and meaning; in its most forceful expression, it
becomes a sanctuary-like territory, that is to say a space of
communion with a world of signs and values. The idea of
territory then becomes associated with that of withdrawal
and cultural preservation (25).
In the last few years, it has become obvious that a national
liberation movement has no chance of surviving, let alone of
winning, if it has not somewhere a symbolic sanctuary, a
hidden territory in which to withdraw and from which to
spring forth again later. The value of it is not only military or
tactical...: in the course of wars, the fall of sanctuaries and
capital cities has always meant for those involved a moral
disaster out of proportion with their actual strategic value.
This cultural space, perceived as a web of territories that are
alive with culture, symbols and emotions, may renew the
approach of geographers by directing their quest towards a
(25) Which does not necessarily imply a lack of universality
or dialogue with the outside. Quebecan writer Jean Tremblay
wrote in 1972: "The more local one is, the more universal" (quoted
by Thibau J. (1980). La France colonisée. Paris: Flammarion).
Paradoxically, great literary or artistic works that have a universal
appeal are often extremely "local" works, whose richness stems
from their being rooted in, and firmly linked to, a territory.
side of reality so far neglected by their sterilising discourse.
The cultural approach in geography does not consist in
dealing with cultural facts by themselves but in defining
territories that reveal the presence of ethnic cultures.
History as well as current events may be interpreted as a
search for, and deciphering of, territories. It would be
unfortunate if geographers had nothing to say on this matter
which after all is at the very heart of their discipline, if not its
aim. Groups, ethnic groups and peoples exist through their
reference to a territory, be it real or imagined, inhabited or lost.
This search for a territory, ever present in history, is not (or not
only) explained by motives of economic competition. The
long wandering of the Jewish people through the Sinai thus
represents the first quest for a political and cultural territory
known in history. Thanks to this land of "milk and honey", the
uprooted tribes of Israel were able to survive, to preserve their
identity and to build a sanctuary for their God in Jerusalem
The history of the tragic people of Israel and that of its land
seem to be one. The land was promised and then lost, taken
back and threatened again, while another wandering and
determined people is now rising on its borders. Likewise
throughout history, scattered Jewish communities could only
protect themselves by recreating, whether of their own
volition or because they were forced to do so, territories in
exile: either real territories — ghettos — or "elsewhere" a
territory dreamed of — the land of Israel. They have paid
throughout the centuries a sinister price for this dream.
Any diaspora may be interpreted as an attempt to
reconstitute a lost territory. After being deported and
scattered, American Blacks created a new culture, a new
way of life, a language (Black English) and a music of their
own (blues, jazz) while regrouping on new territories —
also called ghettos — in the midst of large U.S. cities.
Also in North America, French-speaking groups at present
threatened with cultural extinction have little chance unless,
somewhere, a sanctuary-like territory is set up as a "key
node". Here is what a geographer from Laval University
writes on the subject: "Undoubtedly an autonomous (or
very strong) Quebec must be created in order to ensure the
survival of the French Canadian diaspora in North
America" (E. Waddell, private communication). The case of
Quebec is a good illustration of the major link between the
fate of ethnic groups and cultures and that of their
geosymbols. René Lévesque, the current Prime Minister of
Quebec, expressed this very clearly: "The more French, the
more self-confident, the stronger Quebec is, the better for
the future of North American francophones. The whole of
our history teaches us this if only we care to listen" (26).
The future of Acadia, of the Cajuns of Louisiana, of
communities scattered through western Canada, Maine and
Vermont thus depends on the stakes that have been put
down on the banks of the Saint Lawrence. French
Canadians owe their uniqueness and strength to their being
rooted in a territory which has now been turned into a
sanctuary. They are not so much fighting a "nationalist"
struggle as asserting an identity whose expression they
have carried to its ultimate consequences.
The cultural diversity of a whole continent tomorrow is at
stake, along with the future of the other ethnic minorities
of North America. For the dream of an "English-
speaking, centralising and capitalist America" indeed
implies that ethnic and cultural territories be assimilated,
which means eliminated. A wide, seemingly never-
ending, debate has opened between "America as space"
and "America as territory".
Another illustration is that of the Chinese diasporas
scattered all over Oceania and elsewhere. They only
maintain their culture and cohesion inasmuch as they create
new territories which seem to be as many smalls portions
of China in exile. The Chinese organise specific areas
according to their cultural and social models and thereby
maintain a strong cohesiveness (Chinatown in Vancouver
or in San Francisco e.g.). Insofar as their country has been
recreated, their hope of going back home (often impossible
to fulfill for political reasons) becomes less agonising.
Such is the case in France for refugees from Southeast
Asia. They also tend to turn down the dispersion pattern
suggested by relevant agencies: as soon as possible, they
recreate "territories" around specific streets and areas in
Paris. An ethnic group cannot survive without a territory or
(26) Extract from a speech by René Lévesque, quoted by
Waddell E (1979). "Du continent perdu à l'archipel retrouvé:
le Québec et l'Amérique française". Les cahiers de Géographie
du Québec, vol. 23, n° 58.
Joël Bonnemaison
without roots with which to anchor its geosymbols and
stabilise a familiar lived-in space (27).
French history is also quite significant in this respect.
During the French Revolution, it was not in the name of
their King that the "Vendéens" rose up: it was for their
religion perhaps, but more likely on account of a mystical
and violent passion for their land. It was only in 1793,
when the Convention declared that the mother country was
at risk and called everyone up, that peasants from Anjou
and the Poitou marshes rebelled and refused to go and fight
on the borders of a nation which, to them, was only an
abstract concept. Townsfolks and the bourgeoisie remained
favourable to the Revolution, but the peasantry flared up at
once. In its most spontaneous uprising, the Vendée
rebellion was a territorial and plebeian response (28).
People fought to remain their own masters at home, within
their cultural space and parish territories, in the bocage and in
the marshes, close to local saints, springs and miraculous oak-
trees where statues of the Virgin Mary had only replaced the
ancient gods of the Gauls. As one of their more illustrious
leaders, Charrette, summed it up once, "they (supporters of the
Revolution) have the mother country in their heads, we have it
under our feet" (29). While the Vendéens were invincible at
(27) The excellent study by Saussol A. ("L'héritage".
Société des Océanistes, n° 40, 1980), devoted to the roots of the
land tenure problem in New Caledonia, illustrates the link
between the cultural universe and its territorial roots. At the end of
the 19th century the confinement of the Kanak tribes of New
Caledonia represented a complete upheaval and a spoliation, but
at the same time it gave them territories in which to preserve
their culture and identity. Hence the ambiguous emotional
reactions of Melanesians to their reservations. These represent an
historical injustice and are resented as such, while at the same time
they are the sanctuaries that have facilitated the cultural,
demographic and political renaissance of Melanesians. On this
question, see also Roux J.C. (1974). La crise de la réserve
autochtone et le passage des Mélanésiens dans l'économie de la
Nouvelle-Calédonie. Paris: ORSTOM, and J.P. Doumenge's
diesis (1980). Les Mélanésiens et leur espace en
Nouvel e-Calédonie. Bordeaux: CEGET.
(28) Indeed when in 1816 Louis XVIII appealed to men from
Vendée to make up his guard of honour, there was not a single
volunteer from that region to answer the call. Apart from a few
leaders, are we certain that the Vendéens were royalists?
© Two decades of L'Espace géographique: an anthology
home, they became inhibited and suffered one setback after
another as soon as they found themselves on the opposite
bank of the Loire river. Their columns perished at Savenay in
a fight that turned into a shambles; outside their territory, the
lions had turned into frightened and hesitant sheep (30).
One can thus read history on the basis of the concrete,
quasi-carnal bond between men and their territory.
Classical regional geography had perceived this relation,
which Max Sorre has expressed with perfect clarity (31).
Space as studied by geographers unfolds as successive
levels of perception, not unlike the various levels outlined
by psychologists with respect to the human mind — from
the conscious to the unconscious. There exists an objective
space, that of geographical structures; further, a subjective
or lived-in space and, beyond, a cultural space which is that
of the geosymbolic interpretation. Every society thus keeps
together these various levels of perception in one spatial
unit, which is more or less harmonious, or else more or less
tense, and it also gives a land-based outline, a meaning,
and a specific role to each of these types of space.
6* From Held to territory
I apologise to my readers for describing my own experience
as a researcher in the remaining few paragraphs, but perhaps
being more personal will help to bring home my meaning. I
began in the mid-1960s, along with a score of geographers,
by doing fieldwork in the tropics. We were motivated by a
taste for adventure and travel and a quest for a new type of
human relationships as much as, and possibly more than, by
sheer scientific curiosity about "structures". In my case it all
started in Madagascar, in a remote village at the bottom of a
(29) Quotation from a speech by Charette to his troops,
published in Monsieur de Charette, by de Saint-Pierre M.
(1977). Paris: La Table Ronde.
(30) On the history of Vendée, see Bordonove G. (1974).
La vie quotidienne en Vendée sous la Révolution. Paris: Hachette,
or Damaing M. (1826). Résumé des guerres de Vendée. Paris,
published by Editions Copernic (1980) under the title L'Ouest
dans la tourmente. Paris.
(31) Notably in Rencontre entre la sociologie et la
géographie. Paris: 1957.
valley in the Ankaratra mountains, among polite and Today I believe that the approach I had used then was quite
reserved people who were wondering what I was doing limited as far as analysing land tenure was concerned.
among them The type of research had already been defined Regarding this basic aspect, I had not reached the threshold.
and the methodology was well-known (32). Several months Given the bond between the village society and its soil — in
later, I had completed the tasks of measuring and mapping that particular case it was indeed a territory — , it was
mountain fields and the patchwork of irrigated paddyfields necessary to go beyond analysing and measuring
below. In the latter I had drawn density squares in which I geostructures, even beyond mapping land tenure and the
carefully counted the panicles, ears, and grains of paddy and elements of the landscape. The land tenure system did not
with a colleague, I stooped over holes to scrutinise a soil that depend on laws or mere "custom" regarding distribution; it
was red and black and saturated with water. was part of a cultural and emotional vision of land, that is to
say part of a territorial bond. Land was not only a place of
I was thus attempting to define a geostructure by production but also the basis for a vision of the world.
measuring its constituent elements whenever possible: Tenure allocation was not only social and legal: it reflected
population, fields, habitat, production, soil analysis, and so the type of relation between village-based lineages and their
forth. Such an approach was deliberately based on a survey ancestors and, beyond this, the sort of subtle, indissoluble
of the system of production and the conditions in which it solidarity that united the inhabitants. The apparent social
could function in relation to a natural environment and in inequalities resulting from land allocation were in fact
reference to one type of agricultural civilisation. The partly compensated by the patriarchal relations within
agrarian system was considered from all angles. As far as I lineages. There was no individual ownership as such, at
was concerned, the major advantage lay in the initiatory least in the western sense of the term, but on the other hand
character of the research: we had to spend several months there were ancestors, territories and a certain flexibility of
in the village under study, in daily contact with people. land tenure within territorial lineages. In order to understand
They very soon revealed their own truth and complexity; the land allocation system therefore, one first needed to get
thankfully, they were no longer the subjects of an enquiry, to the root of the relevant conception of the world. It was
but the masters of the game. necessary first to understand the social system, then, as far
as possible, to comprehend the villagers' cultural perception
When everything was over, "my" field had acquired, at least of their own land, and finally to get to the spatial signs
to my own eyes, some transparency (33). I had distinguished visible on the ground, in particular those revealed by the
types of fields and paddies, soil categories, and migratory map of allocated land. As I only possessed the first and last
movements towards the upper mountain areas. I had also sides of the trilogy, my approach was obviously biased
perceived a number of internal tensions, partly caused by my
very presence — a stranger is bound to cause some Did it mean that I should have become an ethnologist to
disturbance. In brief, I had lived in, and got closer to, a some extent? Certainly, but in a non-classical fashion, that is
village society. The mode of production in particular, after to say without ceasing to behave as a geographer. The soil
being measured and analysed, held no secrets for me. None that interested me was the focus of a culture as well as lived-
of all this was false or useless and yet, on leaving, I had the in space and a natural environment arranged towards the
feeling that I had only touched on the surface of things. I production of a number of goods: cultural perception could
have thought about this village many times since then; it not be separated from the geosystem. My being a geographer
remains mysterious to me in many respects. moreover helped me to see things from the point of view of
their spatial distribution, that is to say with my feet as much
as with my eyes and, after all, in a way rather similar to that
(32) Sautter G. et Peussœr P. (1964). "Pour un atlas des of the villagers. As a parallel to to this visible geographical
terroirs africains". Paris and The Hague: U Homme, p. 56-72. soil, made up of places, fields and paddies, there was,
(33) Bonnemaison J. (1976). "Tsarahonenana, des invisible to strangers, a sacred territory inhabited by the
riziculteurs de montagne dans l'Ankaratra". Atlas des structures souls and the graves of ancestors; the dead and the living, the
agraires à Madagascar. Paris: ORSTOM, n° 3, 97 p., 4 maps. spirit and the soil were one. Beyond structures, the

Joel Bonnemaison
geocultural approach would have allowed me to comprehend
more of their social life as experienced and perhaps, a
supreme end that is never reached, to see or at least attempt
to see the world through the "eyes of the inhabitants".
There are types of civilisations — such as those of
Madagascar or Oceania — where social and cultural
dimensions together help shape the territory, and in this
respect maps of land tenure and land use constitute an
extremely useful tool. Actually ethno-sociologists,
confined as they are to their own approach, generally come
up against the opposite problem to that of geographers,
because the keys to the social and cultural dimensions they
study are often to be found precisely where they do not go,
i.e. in the geography of the territory.
I thus had an inkling that under the soil that I had studied there
was a territory and consequently a deeper level of relationship.
More precisely, I realised that in order to answer the usual
questions of a geographer, I had to go beyond a strictly
geographical approach and attempt a holistic approach.
My Madagascan experience was followed by a long spell in
Oceania in which I am still immersed I spent several years
there, focusing on geostructures, measuring again, looking
for a certain truth within agrarian structures and material
productioa Deeper meanings were still mysterious to me.
I was fascinated by cultural issues. I was able to meet non-
acculturated ethnic groups that were proud of their
"customs" and passionately attached to their territories. I
tried to understand them. I had been asked to analyse
modes of development — the irruption of "progress", in a
way — but what fascinated me was their resistance to
development or at least to our type of development.
Melanesians were kind enough to bear with me: they did
not necessarily answer my questions in fact, but at least they
welcomed me. At night we would drink "kava" (34) and
perhaps they accepted me largely on account of a taste we
(34) Kava is a drink made from the pounding of the roots of
a special plant (Piper Methysticum); the roots are first grated or
chewed. Its effects are curious; while being rather different from
those of alcohol, they induce a form of drunkenness.
© Two decades of L'Espace géographique: an anthology
had in common, that of flying up into the "clouds" all
together. After a while, upon my return to one of these
"fieldwork villages" to which, for want of understanding, I
had to go back again and again, people began to teach me
how to interpret their territory. They pointed out places,
rocks, clusters of trees and paths, each of which had a name
and a meaning. Since then I have finally understood that
such places were geosymbols: they were the earthly replicas
of myths, the source of cosmic powers and the foundations
of social organisation. This sacred geography had drawn on
the surface of the earth the letters of a symbolic language, a
sort of codified writing from which the group could read,
broadcast and reproduce its own vision of the world.
Understanding a society that is not one's own is like
making an almost impossible bet The problem is to find
the right key to the most significant door to reality.
Linguists have the advantage of knowing the language and
thus being able to analyse the "discourse". Through their
surveys of parental systems, oral literature, technology,
types of power and social organisation, ethnologists
attempt to reconstitute culture. As a geographer, I perceive
space — the geosymbolic web — as a sort of language, a
tool for communication shared by all and ultimately as the
place where the whole of a cultural vision is inscribed.
In fact I only began to make headway the moment I accepted
what people kept telling me: "The soil is our life. Everything
is in the soil. What you are looking for, you will find under
our feet". The island of Tanna, in southern Vanuatu, was the
eye-opener for me. There, I really discovered something of
which I had only had an inkling elsewhere: through its
territoriality a people expresses its conception of the world,
its organisation, its hierarchies and its social functions. But I
had to prove this, and doing so meant undertaking to map the
cultural field of the few groups I knew. This mapping is an
attempt at translating into spatial terms the mental universe
on which both social and symbolic functions are founded
Mapping the cultural field may be seen as a way to check the
validity of the original hypothesis. One either reaches one's
goal or fails; either places speak or they are silent; the group
concerned either does or does not find that this corresponds
to what they are. As far as I was concerned, I could only
carry on with the task because I had promised the people
with whom I worked to show the maps to them before I gave
them to anybody else, and to be the artisan of something of
which, in the last analysis, they were the real architects.
Thus does a specific type of cartography constitute the final
step in the geocultural approach. Geographers so far have
only mapped structures or objective data: physical data,
sites of production and economic flows. Perhaps there
remains for us to create a new cartography capable of
representing the cultural field as experienced by human
groups, a cartography whose object would be the projection
on the ground of their various forms of territoriality.
7. Space, region, territory
The choice of a cultural viewpoint in geography is neither
gratuitous nor concerned solely with research methodology,
no more at least than social or quantitative geography is.
The concept of geographical space is indeed logical: space
is smooth, uniform and devoid of mystery, it can be
measured and translated into geometrical terms. In this
respect it is increasingly used in the technocratic language
and in land use planning. In short, space is an addition of
territories which are conceptualised in order to be dismissed
more easily. Space is Nation, State, and even worldwide
Organisation. Conversely, the territory calls upon what in
man escapes scientific observation and touches on
irrationality: it represents life as experienced, emotions,
subjectivity and, frequently, the core of an earthly, pagan or
deistic religiosity. Whereas space tends towards uniformity
and levelling, the territory is reminiscent of the concepts of
differentiation, ethnicity and cultural identity.
Claude Raffestin was right when he wrote that territoriality
is first and foremost a relation to otherness (35). The
territory indeed represents a way of living with others and,
in many cases, its geographical limits are those of daily
relationships. Space begins "beyond". It is the unknown, it
is play, freedom, and also danger. Each group thus exists by
creating for itself an equilibrium which is always unstable,
between territory and space, between safety and risk,
between stability and mobility, between inward-looking
ethnocentrism and an outward-looking perspective. In other
(35) Raffestin C. Op. cit.
words, the territory is first and foremost congenial. Space
begins outside the territory when the individual is alone and
confronted to, not associated with, certain places, within a
type of relation from which any intimacy whatsoever is
excluded Our contemporary societies undoubtedly produce
less and less territory and more and more space; the
individual in such a society is more of a wanderer, he no
longer has roots, his neighbours are strangers to him, all the
more so as mobility, for economic reasons, becomes
synonymous with social ascent (36). As for territories, when
they exist at all, they have become tiny "havens", a few
square feet of standardised lawn where everyone seeks
protection fom the aggressions of the modern world; they
are no longer, or too rarely, congenial places.
The approach I have attempted here, based on an
exploration of the ideas of ethnicity and territory, is
probably more relevant to traditional and "primitive"
societies. Such societies operate by creating and building a
succession of territories next to each other, which overlap
to form larger cultural and political wholes. Conversely,
urban or industrial societies tend to restrain the extension
and role of these multi-centred territories for the benefit of
a centralised, neutral and symbolically empty space which
is only associated with social and economic functions.
The connotations attached to space and territory are both
opposite and complementary. Territories need a certain spatial
depth so as to become poles which generate safety areas
around them, areas which may also fulfill secondary
economic or social functions such as common forests at the
edge of Europe's ancient land divisions. The whole problem
of islands, by the way, is that, because of narrow and
confined vistas, there is not enough space between territories;
as a consequence people are more strongly attached to their
soil, while roots and local "patriotism" are more sensitive
points there than anywhere else. But conversely space does
not create identity, it is an alienating emptiness that can only
be humanised through cultural mediation.
(36) See the remarkable study by the American sociologist
Packard V. (1972). Une société d étrangers. Paris: Calmann-
Lévy. The consequences of the frantic mobility of the US
population (40 million Americans move houses every year) are
explained in great detail.
Joël Bonnemaison
There is a fourfold meaning attached to the territory:
biological, economic, social and political; in this context
however, and in its most "human" sense, it is essentially
the place that mediates between men and their culture. Men
try to attach networks of meaning to certain sites and
privileged places. In "primitive" societies, outstanding
sites, ecological niches which are particularly well
protected and hospitable, sources and elevated areas are
thus the first places to be seized and invested. Around these
develop what an ethnologist of Oceania (37) has called
"peaceful abodes". The territory is thus born of sites and
signs on the ground; around this the environment organises
itself and the social group takes root, while at the periphery
and to variable degrees, the territory gradually turns into a
secondary space with more or less clear outlines.
The presence of geosymbols thus humanises space and
diversifies it by putting a cultural mark on it The cultural
wealth of a civilisation can be seen from the increasing
number of "peaceful abodes", signs and places of
implantation: from its territories in other words. Conversely
the disappearancespace
"commonplace" of such
is a territories
sign of cultural
and their
impoverishment
replacement by
or
even of inability to communicate not only with one's soil but
also with one's fellowmen. Indeed not only does the territory
fulfill the individual's need for identity and security, it is also
the place where one accepts otherness. In this respect North
American spaces are like negatives which reveal a certain
absence. Similarly, the increasing "standardisation" of old
European territories which are being replaced by a
centralised, functional, productive but commonplace space,
reflects a trend in today's civilisation.
Thus does the fluctuation of territories within space reflect
the interplay of dominant social forces. Space and territory
cannot be dissociated however, as space implies wandering
whereas territory means roots. A territory needs space to gain
the weight and expanse without which it cannot exist, and
space needs territories to become human. There is a sort of
dialectical relationship involved as each of the two terms
complements the other and carries opposite meanings. As
these two opposites merge, they should give rise to a
(37) Maurice LeenhardL
© Two decades of L'Espace géographique: an anthology
synthesis or at least a hinge-like concept. As far as
geographers are concerned, such a median term can only be
the region. Between space as a structure, organised according
to economic and social functions, and territory as a place of
experience and culture, the region is undoubtedly a regulation
system of which they are both components at different levels.
"Geography is the science of places", Vidal de la Blache
wrote. A. Fremont added that "the fundamental object of
geography is the connection between men and the places
that make up a region". This dual objective still appears
valid and in this respect territorial geography may bring in
an extra dimension because, if inhabited space is a region,
space as imagined and seen by man refers to a culture
which is projected onto a soil through a territory.
Geographers today seem to be rediscovering the concept of
region. A number of researchers, among whom Roger Brunet
(38), have recently renovated the regional approach through
references to polarisation and systems of spatial regulation.
Although this approach is particularly relevant to urban and
industrial societies, it could be enriched by a cultural
approach conceived in terms of territoriality and geosymbolic
representation. The example of traditional and "primitive"
civilisations can be a guide in this respect. Space, crossed by
signs and poles, is fraught with meaning; the message written
therein in geosymbolic terms reflects the weight of the
dreams and beliefs of men in their search for meaning. It
would be interesting to examine space within our own
societies in the same perspective and with similar questions.
As I reach the end of this journey, the territory appears to me
as a carnal by-product of culture. More than a reflection, it is
an embodiment, of it. If pushed to its limits, the cultural
approach may play in geography the role which the
discovery of mental attitudes and the integration of social
experience have played in the renewal of history. For this to
come true one should stop travelling around the territory, and
begin to invade it properly. The trip is at least worth a try.
L'Espace géographique, n°4, 1981.
régionale"
n° 11,(38)1972.
Readin Travaux
in particular
de l'Institut
"Pour unedethéorie
Géographie
de la géographie
de Reims,