Place, A Stage of History

 Tyler Grasser

2/9/2021

Cultural Geography

Paul Carter

Place, a stage of history

I found these two articles to be quite mentally stimulating, as they challenged my mind to think deeply about things that have never crossed my mind. To think of “place” as a sort of stage comparable to a stage used for theater performances, but rather for history to play itself out was quite new for me to think about but also quite true. Without the concept of place and space it would be incredibly difficult if not impossible to accurately retell or record events that may have occurred. This is also a very imperialistic way of viewing space and place, as the primary object is not to understand or interpret that place, rather to legitimize that location. 

When it comes to describing and or naming a place or space the language of emotion comes into effect as language of description. People of typical western cultures and ideologies typically use the “lazy luxury of comparison” in order to designate a name to a place. This is very evident when we look at imperialist place names in Australia where the landscape and climate are unlike anything we see in Europe.

By designating a name to a place we are essentially breathing history into being because we give events a place or direct coordinates to occur. Place names embody the travelers, explorers, colonizers territorial and directional ambitions which is the desire to possess and make real in their mind.