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Place, Naming, and the Interpretation of Cultural Landscapes
... These places are not only expressed through visual but also verbal performance. Across 6.28), and social media, the toponyms inscribed onto Game of Thrones locations impact how those places and spaces are perceived, identified and communicated (Alderman, 2008;Light, 2014). Watergardens of Dorne, shouting 'Come on babe, Dorne is that way!' to her partner. ...
... Even I would almost always think of the fictional names first and had to regularly remind myself to write the 'historically correct' names in my interview protocols and fieldnotes. This was not only because I was repeatedly hearing these names from guides, interview respondents and constantly overhearing it from tourists, as well as studying filming location maps, but because in many cases I was first These comments confirm that naming, whether by intent and design or through colloquial repetition, can be used to evoke certain images, narratives and memories, create a sense of place and new mythologised spaces (Alderman, 2008;Crang & Travlou, 2001, p. 165;Light, 2014). While there are numerous places that adapted fictional names, such as ...
... After the Yugoslav Wars, Croatia tried to revitalise its image as an attractive, Adriatic tourist destination by culturally reframing and repositioning itself 'as being identical to its Western European neighbors' in contrast to the 'Balkan' or 'Eastern Europe' (Blanuša, 2015;D. Hall, 2002;Rivera, 2008 toponyms not only impact how we perceive and identify spaces and places but also lay claim to them (Alderman, 2008;Light, 2014;Rose-Redwood et al., 2017). Alderman (2008, p. 196) describes that 'renaming represents a way of creating new connections between the past and the present' and that the 'practice of naming, like all heritages, is inherently dissonant and open to multiple and sometimes competing interpretations' (L. ...
The fantasy series Game of Thrones (2011–2019) has become a global pop-cultural phenomenon with a reach far beyond the television screen. Through extensive on-location filming, the series has linked its diegetic world of Westeros and Essos to countless heritage sites across Northern Ireland, Croatia, Spain, Iceland, Malta and Morocco, overcoding them with their on-screen identities through narratives and special effects. Fictional locations such as ‘Winterfell’ or ‘King’s Landing’ have since become popular tourist destinations, leading to an emergence of countless tours, experiences, products, and destination marketing intended to sell the ‘authentic’ fantasy to those who are seeking these imaginary geographies. However, Game of Thrones’ manifestations across its filming locations go beyond tourist products but created a complex landscape of new spatial, visual, material, and performative signifiers. Re-framing and restaging scenes, dressing up and using fictional toponyms while documenting and sharing these performances through social media photography have territorialised the diegetic heritage of Game of Thrones onto the filming locations. These practices have created liminal spaces that share aspects of pilgrimage, heritage- and nation-building processes, and established a new transnational heritage space with its own transnational imagined community, habitus and ‘hyper-traditions’. Furthermore, these new diegetic heritage landscapes are affecting previously established global perceptions and local identities. The post-conflict contexts of Northern Ireland and Dubrovnik illustrate how asserting new narratives, even if they are entirely fictional, can both overcome and create dissonant heritage as well as resolve and evoke memory conflicts. A multi-sited visual ethnography has been undertaken across Game of Thrones’ filming locations in Northern Ireland (UK), Dalmatia (Croatia) and Andalusia (Spain) to examine not only how Game of Thrones specifically has impacted the filming locations but how modern mass-media, social media and pop-culture is affecting how heritage is created, used and engaged with in the 21st century.
... The ubiquitous use of fictional names of places and monuments has ushered in a new phase of contested heritage in Dubrovnik. Manifesting themselves orally and visibly through signs, advertisements, and maps, toponyms impact how we perceive and identify spaces and places (Alderman 2008;Alderman et al. 2012). For many interview participants, various heritage sites across Dubrovnik became Blackwater Bay, the Walk of Shame, the Red Keep, and the House of the Undying. ...
Dubrovnik, Croatia, recently re-entered the global consciousness due to its role as King’s Landing in the successful fantasy series Game of Thrones. Within this series, numerous heritage sites across several countries were used as filming locations, with Dubrovnik and its monuments being among those most prominently featured. Dubrovnik, now King’s Landing, has become a popular destination for Game of Thrones fans; multiple locations in the city have been overcoded with their on-screen identity by fusing real places with special effects, narratives, and new spatial relations. This has led to the creation of an imaginary, transnational heritage space with its own signifiers and imagined deep past, a space sustained through newly invented traditions and banal performances. The re-enacting of scenes and use of different toponyms, mapping them onto the landscape through digital activities, thereby enables fans to take interpretative ownership and create a ‘coming home’ space. While this is profitable for the local tourism industry, which has adapted to meet demand, the reimagining of the complex memory space of Dubrovnik invokes dissonance among locals who feel that their heritage could be overtaken by this “imperialism of imagination” (Goldsworthy 2013). Using data obtained through ethnographic research, this chapter concludes that the creation of the transnational heritage space of Game of Thrones is, albeit unintentionally, emulating processes of heritage- and nation-building and their contestation. By imposing the ‘deep past’ of King’s Landing onto Dubrovnik almost instantaneously, this case study exemplifies the fluid, imaginary, and contested nature of heritage and identity.
... Toponyms. Toponyms (names of places) are the most basic way to link semantic meaning and space (for geographical studies on toponymy, see: Alderman, 2008;Rose-Redwood and Alderman, 2010;Scharloth, 2022). In fact, toponyms are a pre-or nonmetaphoric form of spatial reference, since they simply address particular positions or areas on the earth's surface by individual names. ...
As other crises before, the COVID-19 pandemic put established discursive routines at stake. By framing the pandemic as a crisis, an immediate search for adequate counter-measures started to define proper means of mitigation and protection for the population. In the early stages of COVID-19, when little reliable information on the virus and its transmission behaviour was available, an intense use of metaphor to explain and govern the crisis had to be expected. Beside its well-known impact on (geo-)politics, a thorough analysis especially of the use of spatial metaphors to reason about the crises is still missing. In our approach, we rely on the foundational work of Lakoff and Johnson (1980) on image schemata, and prior work on spatial metaphors as part of argumentation patterns from cultural geography (Schlottmann, 2008). After a thorough analysis of prominent examples according to the argumentation scheme of Toulmin (1976 [1958]), we explored examples from the pre-existing corpus on COVID-19, deliberately compiled by DWDS for analysis of language patterns used throughout the pandemic. In a subsequent filter-refinement approach building on methods from cognitive linguistics and utilising a chunk of the same corpus, we were able to obtain and discuss results on the variety of spatial metaphors used at that time.
In this article I explore issues of negotiating cultural identity in new geopolitical spaces as presented in Dinaw Mengestu’s All Our Names. I examine the portrayal of a liminal character living in Uganda and America and how the author narrates his daily experiences of negotiating identity in order to underscore the power of hierarchies of ethnicity, class, race, and nationalistic discourses at play in determining who belongs and who does not. I analyse the ways in which names are used as narrative strategy to show that identity is never singular or fixed but plural and continuous. I explore how, through Isaac’s unnaming, naming, and renaming, Mengestu contests the fixity of names and identity by indicating naming as a processual act and how a person’s identity is layered and thus cannot be fully contained within a single marker. Drawing upon the concepts of hybridity, third space, and cosmopolitanism, I demonstrate how subject position and cultural identity are not fixed into definite categorical distinctions but are fluid concepts. Mengestu does not only raise possibilities of belonging beyond the confines of a nation or community, but also presents a cosmopolitan world where negotiation and belonging is difficult because of power differences, racism, marginalisation, and discrimination.
Naming is a noteworthy cultural practice, not only because of its ability to create a sense of continuity over time, but also through its capacity for changing and challenging lines of identity. Thus, naming is a powerful vehicle for promoting identification with the past and locating oneself within wider networks of memory. The objective of this article is to explore the naming of some government schools in the Vhembe District in Limpopo province from a socio-onomastics point of view. A qualitative case study design was followed in this study. Semi-structured, face-to-face interviews, followed by telephonic interviews and document analysis, were used to collect data from fourteen participants. The findings of this study show that people in the rural Vhembe District Municipality contend with the practices and processes that are followed in naming public places such as schools. The findings of this study further reveal that in the naming of government schools the names of the local traditional leadership are used. Lastly, the findings reveal that traditional leaders have the ultimate power to name government schools.
Naming the world is very much the adventure societies, groups, individuals and humans engage in when they inhabit a portion of earth, a territory, a city, or they follow routes, discover them, invest in them, or map them. Toponymy appropriates places and spaces through addresses, landmarks, referents, routes, signage and cartography. In a word, it territorializes. The naming of places is fundamentally political because it participates in the institution of an order endowed with a regime of representation that hierarchizes places, resources, values and beliefs. A political semiotic approach points to the well‐demarcated field of political odonymy. This field has been enriched by works on the naming and visualization of new emerging territories, resulting from the politico‐functional recompositions of new regionalism, or of tourism territories or transport as places where the political hold of the visual and linguistic landscape extends, together with territorial marketing in a globalizing context.
In this chapter, examples of how some countries use archaeology, place-name studies and long-term history as a basis for claims on land, based on the opinion that those who came first have more rights on land than those who came later. These strategies presupposes a long-term stability in the ethnic composition of countries. KeywordsHistoryArchaeologyPlace namesLandscapeHeritageNationalismIdentity
The landscape at Mount Shamrock was socially constructed, conceptualised and understood by the residents partially in terms of the context in which they encountered it. Recognition that people operated within a landscape that had a variety of scales, and that scale was in fact fluid, is an integral part of understanding the same landscape. There were also different phases of use; and individuals held different views of Mount Shamrock and its surrounds that changed through time. As a result, several meanings in the landscape were held in tension simultaneously. While the way specific parts of the landscape were used and regarded was revealed through the archaeological and archival evidence, experiential reading of the landscape can also bring to light more ephemeral and intangible aspects of the landscape, such as sense-scapes, and the relationship and experience everyday residents had within it. This chapter examines the ways in which landscape scale, meaning and experience were encountered and understood by the residents of the town.
Through a toponymic lens, this article opens insights into Kyiv’s rampant, largely unregulated urban growth under neoliberal management, including associated forms of new-build gentrification. Practices of (re)naming are increasingly used to brand places, especially in the real estate market contexts. Theoretically, we discuss the uses of symbolic motif-repertoires, place-spoofing (through name-loans or copied architectural forms, for instance) and local heritage-based autochthonous naming as the ingredients of neoliberal place making and new-build gentrification. Empirically, we analyze 639 names for residential estates in Kyiv and its outskirts, coined in 2010–2020. We classified this corpus into autochthonous and neotoponymic estate names based on their relationship to the existing local toponymy, and then conducted a detailed interpretative analysis of both subsets. Used to attract a specific niche of home-buyers, the main types of toponymic place brands in Kyiv include select autochthonous “prestige names” recycled in the real estate landscape, overwhelmingly Western (North American and above all European) name loans, references to business owners and corporate brands, and evocations of internationally fashionable generic themes of urbanism (from urban greenness to expressions of high social status. Although the revealed toponymic novelties may express the integration of Ukrainian society to the worldwide community of free market economies, such repercussions of these neoliberal place making linguistic practices as symbolic repetitiveness and linguistic Westernization may have potentially adverse effects of enfeebled historicity and increasing placelessness, as well as phenomenological displacement in the Ukrainian capital.
Intensive investigations of the archaeological remains at agricultural sites and water springs may provide a wealth of information. The remains, recently revealed in the vicinity of eṣ-Ṣader spring 3 , inspired the authors to investigate the area in and around Wādī eṣ-Ṣader. These explorations have enhanced our knowledge about the importance of this spring in the lives of the inhabitants of Wādī Moūsā as early as the Nabataean period. The existing archaeological evidence in this region, which will be discussed in this paper, includes remains of Nabataean terracotta water pipelines as well as Islamic water mills. In addition, the paper includes a discussion on some of the ancient toponyms either mentioned in the Petra archive and other place names which are of Aramaic origin. The latter indicates that these were used when Aramaic was the lingua franca in the region during the Na-bataean period. Additionally, the inherited water traditions in the study area are presented in an attempt to trace their historical origin. Finally, the importance of terrace cultivation in this region through ages is also highlighted.
Theories of the public sphere have dominated political discussion for the past several years. Only recently, however, has the notion of the ideal public sphere been linked to geographically specific public spaces. The aim of this paper is to examine the reworking of the ideal public sphere in the context of a particular place and time: the contemporary landscape of an élite neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia. Despite its presentation as a public site of rational discourse, the Shaughnessy landscape has long operated as a space of hegemonic production for a dominant Anglo élite. This production was successfully contested by Hong Kong Chinese cosmopolitans, who entered this formerly homogeneous suburb in large numbers in the past decade. It is argued that this contestation presents a significant rupture in the Canadian narrative of capitalism and modernity - a narrative which, in the context of the liberal welfare state, is largely reliant on the legitimacy of the ideal public sphere. key words public sphere landscape race cosmopolitan hegemony Vancouver © Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) 1997.
The naming of casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada, is an essential ingredient in the design of the city's entertainment landscape. More than 300 names have been used in the naming of gaming in Las Vegas since 1955. They occur in seven dominant patterns: 1) luck and good fortune, 2) wealth and opulence, 3) action, adventure, excitement and fantasy, 4) geography, 5) a certain moment, era, or season, 6) intimacy and informality, and 7) “power words” commonly used in the naming of businesses. The categories are described and analyzed from the perspective of the evolution of Las Vegas. Regional variations between the Las Vegas Strip, Downtown Las Vegas, and suburban Las Vegas are also discussed. The names provide a powerful means of evoking senses of place, images, and identities for the casinos. They underscore the interpretative subjectivity and plurality of the relationship between people and commercial urban environments.
A political economy of placenames is proposed in an attempt to discover who has the power to name places and what values the names represent. Studies of power and placenames are reviewed and directions for further research are indicated. Placenaming in the state of Pará on the Brazilian Amazon frontier is examined and settlement names are analyzed. Government map-makers and politicians, relations with indigenous populations, and settlers' hopes for better lives are shown to interact with other factors and with chance to create the changing “namescape” of the Amazon frontier.
Placenames promote identification and connection, and serve the ideological needs of those who give the names. In this context, 1examine Zionist efforts during the British mandate in Palestine to preserve the original Hebrew names found in the Bible and other ancient sources as placenames in Palestine in the documents, correspondence, and official signs of the mandate government. The Zionists gave to placenames in Palestine a special role for advancing their ideological-national goals and for maintaining a connection between the Jews in Palestine and the diaspora with their historical homeland. I also examine the British attitude to these Zionist efforts and conclude that this attitude was related to Britain's overall approach to the issue of Palestine.
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Heritage shopping villages are becoming increasingly commonplace in rural North America. Their creation reflects the demands of post-modern consumers to purchase symbolic capital in the form of unique products and experiences reflecting a bygone era. Entrepreneurs have responded to this by commodifying heritage and tradition; a process that leads to the creation of new landscapes and a perceived destruction of the old. This transformation has been described in the model of creative destruction (Mitchell 1998). In this paper the model is applied to Old Niagara-on-the-Lake, a heritage shopping village located in southern Ontario, Canada. Data on functional change, visitor numbers and residents' attitudes are analysed for the period 1950-1998. It is concluded that historic Niagara-on-the-Lake is in the early stages of 'advanced destruction'; one characterized by major investment, large numbers of visitors and partial destruction of the rural idyll. Results of this analysis confirm that while the basic premise of the model is sound, modifications are required to accommodate some of the study's findings.
Memorializing the classical Greek and Roman world in numerous place-names is a practice limited to the United States, and has major implications concerning the American self-image. Analysis of some three thousand names of classical derivation applied to political and settlement entities has revealed spatial and temporal irregularities in what ultimately became a nationwide phenomenon. Classical toponymy became strongly entrenched in west-central New York in the 1790's and the early 1800's. From there the practice diffused in strength throughout the Middle West and, in more dilute form, into other parts of the country along a broad but recognizable innovation wave. The vogue dwindled sharply in the early 1900's and is now virtually extinct. Three diffusional mechanisms are recognized: contagious diffusion; transmission via migrants; and spontaneous circulation of ideas among a literate elite. A "hollow cultural frontier" is also suggested-that is, the vigorous adoption of the innovation along the periphery of its range long after it lost ground within an older core. Finally, the historical geography of classical town names reinforces the notion of the primacy of "New England Extended" as the major culture hearth for social, economic, and cultural innovations in the United States.
A street-name system based on European perception of landscape ordering and urban functioning officially existed in colonial Singapore. Concurrently, there existed alternative systems of street names that originated among the immigrant Asian communities. Emphases of purpose and function as well as linguistic origin were reflected in the applied street names. Singapore had a syncretic character, not the unified one inherent in the vision of the official street names.