Bücher von Jon Mathieu

Mount Kailash in Asia, the Black Hills in North America, Uluru in Australia: around the globe, numerous mountains have been and continue to be attributed sacredness. Worship of these mountains involves prayer, meditation and pilgrimage. Christianity, which long showed little interest in nature, provides a foil to these practices and was one factor in the tensions that arose in the age of colonialism. Decolonisation and the 'ecological turn' changed the religious power of interpretation and imparted new meaning to discourses about sacred mountains. This succinct and erudite study demonstrates how, globally, these mountains remain outstanding examples of cultural diversity and convergence points of issues such as gender justice and environmental protection.

In the 1700s, Jean-Jacques Rousseau celebrated the Alps as the quintessence of the triumph of nature over the "horrors" of civilization. Now available in English, History of the Alps, 1500-1900: Environment, Development, and Society provides a precise history of one of the greatest mountain range systems in the world.

This book considers the variegated world of mountains and their development during the last 500 years. At the book's heart stands the question of whether and in what way the 'three-dimensional history' of mountain people may reveal distinctive forms of development.