Soil and Culture

SOIL: beneath our feet / food and fiber / ashes to ashes, dust to dust / dirt!Soil has been called the final frontier of environmental research. The critical role of soil in biogeochemical processes is tied to its properties and place—porous, structured, and spatially variable, it serves as a conduit, buffer, and transformer of water, solutes and gases. Yet what is complex, life-giving, and sacred to some, is ordinary, even ugly, to others. This is the enigma that is soil.

Soil and Culture explores the perception of soil in ancient, traditional, and modern societies. It looks at the visual arts (painting, textiles, sculpture, architecture, film, comics and stamps), prose & poetry, religion, philosophy, anthropology, archaeology, wine production, health & diet, and disease & warfare.

Soil and Culture explores high culture and popular culture—from the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch to the films of Steve McQueen. It looks at ancient societies and contemporary artists. Contributors from a variety of disciplines delve into the mind of Carl Jung and the bellies of soil eaters, and explore Chinese paintings, African mud cloths, Mayan rituals, Japanese films, French comic strips, and Russian poetry.

Soil and the Visual Arts.- The Representation of Soil in the Western Art: From Genesis to Pedogenesis.- Deforestation and Erosion Captured in Historical Art of the Pearl River Delta Region, China.- Transcendental Aspects of Soil in Contemporary Visual Arts.- Merging Horizons—Soil Science and Soil Art.- Soil Colors, Pigments and Clays in Paintings.- In a Supporting Role: Soil and the Cinema.- Under my feet—Soil presence and perspectives in the work of four contemporary visual artists.- Dig Deeper.- Creating Fiber Art with Soil and Rust.- Soil, Subsoil, Priming and Architectural Design.- Art by the Ground.- Soil and Soul: Literature and Philosophy.- To Join the Real and the Mental Place: The Written Earth.- “Pochveniks”—“The Poets of The Soil”: The Geological School of 20th Century Poetry in Leningrad, USSR (St. Petersburg, Russia).- The Soil Scientist’s Hidden Beloved: Archetypal Images and Emotions in the Scientist’s Relationship with Soil.- Comprehending Soil within the Context of the Land Community.- Core Samples of the Sublime—On the Aesthetics of Dirt.- Perspectives on Soil by Indigenous and Ancient Cultures.- European Religious Cultivation of the Soil.- “Rock – Stone” and “Soil – Earth”: Indigenous Views of Soil Formation and Soil Fertility in the West Indies.- Mobilizing Farmers’ Knowledge of the Soil.- Ancient Maya Perceptions of Soil, Land, and Earth.- The Soil Memory: Case Study of a Protohistoric Archaeological Site in Senegal.- Soil and Health.- Soils and Geomedicine: Trace Elements.- Do Pedo-Epidemiological Systems Exist?.- “Earth Eaters”: Ancient and Modern Perspectives on Human Geophagy.- Soil – the dark side and the light side.- Soil and Warfare.- Yellow Sands and Penguins: The Soil of “The Great Escape”.- Soilsand Soil Pioneers on Stamps.- Soil in Comic Strips and Cartoons.- Soils and Terroir Expression in Wines.