Pathways as Expressions of Health

This is a follow-up to an earlier post on paths (). The full article discusses the value of the cultural landscape concept in understanding the inter-relationship between paths and health. Paths can be read as a reflection of cultural values of health, and they can also be advocated as routes to good health, in all it’s physical, social and spiritual aspects.

 

A recent Associated Press “news” item on how “walking keeps the Swiss fit” suggested it is easier for the Swiss to keep fit because “every single Swiss village, city and mountain is crisscrossed with paths” (May 10, 2008). The article went on to compare how Americans are much more likely to use their cars to engage in activities on the land, partly out of a need to rush around and partly out of fear: “kids rarely walk to school because parents are afraid of paedophiles.”

This is a good illustration of the utility of the cultural landscapes concept, and my interest here is in the cultural landscapes concept itself, not the details of Swiss and American culture (or Swiss and American cultural landscapes).

My first reaction to the story, from a cultural landscape perspective, was that it is misguided to assume more paths will result in better physical fitness, since the number and design of paths is a reflection of people’s approach to physical activity on the land — which is a reflection of people’s relationships to the land and one another. Pikangikum elder Solomon Turtle described recreation as a way of life lived on the land: “How I would define recreation would be how we used to live, living the nomadic life, going from one place to the next; coming here, staying for a few days, and going out the next day” (see the Pikangikum Land Use Strategy). Solomon Turtle’s vision of a healthy life as being out on the land - “a good tough life with lots of walking” - seems to be in keeping with what the Swiss believe, judging from their cultural landscape being filled with trails. Contrast this with a view of physical recreation/activity that emphasises the pursuit of personal fitness indoors (e.g., on a treadmill). Why not just walk to and from work?

In urban landscapes, the pre-eminent form of walking path is the sidewalk (as it is termed in North American English). It is the “walkway”, as opposed to the “roadway”, but to call the sidewalk a walking path is a bit misleading since its principle purpose is to provide certainty to drivers, not to promote walking. The design of these paths reveals that their purpose is to restrict walking to the side of the roadway, ensuring the roadway remains reserved for vehicles. Rather than uniting land and people, the sidewalk is a part of a landscape design that seeks to prevent people from crossing (trans-passer) the bounds of appropriate behaviour. Never mind that providing certainty for drivers promotes laziness in thinking and greater certainty that people will have accidents (see Hans Monderman).

The point? A people’s view of health is embedded in the land and is visible, in part, through the trails and paths that connect people with the land and each other. In urban centres, large and small, the landscape reveals a cultural emphasis on travelling by vehicles; a value placed on mobility over proximity, on speed over … reflection? A people’s view of health is embedded in the land and is visible, in part, through the trails and paths that connect people with the land and each other. Where being on the land and engaging in physical activity is not seen as a central part of day-to-day life, as opposed to segregated “leisure” or “work-out” times, it would seem being on the land is not a large part of what is considered important to good health.

Can that be changed? The cultural landscape concept expresses a reciprocal relationship between land and people: the land, including as it has been modified and interpreted by people, affects how people behave as much as people’s behaviour changes the land. Creating trails should alter people’s use and perception of the land, it should improve the chances that people would get out and do more walking, thereby having more opportunity to learn from the land and to see being on the land as a priority to good health. But how much, if that feature of a cultural landscape is not culturally valued in everyday pratice?

The question the news story raises — can we deliberately alter the physical aspects of a cultural landscape to produce new behaviour? — is, in essence, an old materialist/mentalist chestnut that will need to be cracked some other time. Before we can even make more trails to help people improve their health — in the total sense expressed by Pikangikum elder Solomon Turtle, as a way of life that keeps people in touch with the land and provides for good health in all its physical, emotional and spiritual dimensions — we need to begin dismantling the rigid property rules that prevent sharing of the land, including through the shared use of trails. We need more public space and, ultimately, more common space.