Landscapes may become cultural or s

Landscapes may become cultural or sacred by virtue of the rituals performed in
them. Sacred landscapes are often crucibles for forms of symbolic and material
expression by individuals and groups because they are a locus of individual and
collective experience (Arsenault 2004: 72; Thomas 1995: 28–9). Engagement with
these material expressions provides a basis for understanding how divergent past
societies were from the present (Thomas 2001: 181). Kuchler (1983) suggests that
sacred landscapes, if defined in terms of landmarks of individual or collective
validity, become a generally accessible and a widely shared aide mémoire of a
culture’s understanding of its past, present and future (Kuchler 1983: 85). However,
landscapes contain spaces and these spaces can be transformed into places with a
distinct character.