Dissertation Information for Stephen Mayes Sloan NAME: - Stephen Mayes Sloan
DEGREE:
- Ph.D.
DISCIPLINE:
- History
SCHOOL:
- Arizona State University (USA) (2003)
ADVISORS: - Noel J. Stowe
COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - Peter Iverson - Kyle Longley
MPACT Status: Fully Complete
Title: Negotiating a sense of place in the Salt River Valley: Urbanites and the desert
Abstract: Since the beginnings of Euro-American settlement in the Salt River Valley in the latter half of the nineteenth century, residents have been involved in the complex process of place-making, reconciling social and cultural expectations of the built and natural environments to the realities of living in central Arizona. This dissertation focuses on several aspects of this process, specifically, residents' views of the land, water, and climate of the Valley and how and why these shift over time. Newcomers to the region encountered a landscape that was dramatically different from environments much more familiar, most often those in the Midwestern or Eastern United States.
Part of this discussion of negotiating a sense of place is the cultural and religious lenses residents use to understand their surroundings. Culture and religion both contribute to the construction of sense of place. These lenses define the parameters of how residents read their landscape--highlighting possibilities and establishing limits. This work deals primarily with the Euro-American perceptions of the Valley while contrasting that experience with the Indian cultures that had long called the region home.
The process of negotiating a sense of place in the Salt River Valley is linked in many ways with the dynamics of building a sense of community. Connections to one another in the human environment are inextricably linked to connections residents form with the natural environment.
Much of the current discussion of the ills of the urban area--sprawl, congestion, air quality, and water shortages--can be addressed by a renewed commitment to understand what it means to be an urbanite in the desert.
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calculated 2008-02-02 23:58:53
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