Sacred space and place attachment

]o~rnal of Environmental Psychology (1993) 13, 231-242 © 1993 Academic Press Ltd f NMENTAL PSYCI]OLOGY SACRED SPACE AND PLACE ATTACHMENT SHAMPA MAZUMDAR* AND SANJOY MAZUMDARt * Department of Sociology and ~ School of Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92717, U.S.A. Abstract The aim of this paper is to provide an understanding of the interconnectedness between religion, identity and attachment to sacred spaces. This is done in three parts. First, we provide a general understanding of attachment to sacred spaces, settings and objects and create a typology of attachment to different sacred spaces, from macro to micro, from natural to human-made, based on a brief comparison of several religions. Second, focusing on one part of this typology (attachment to homes), we illustrate the creation, content and meaning of sacred space through a detailed analysis of the Hindu house. Third, we examine the emergence of place attachment and identity, the ways religion through ritual connects people to places, and how places as settings for sacred behavior and socialization connects people to religion. Finally, by including personal history and auto-ethnography we attempt to 'personalize' environmental psychology. Introduction In recent years emotional connections to places and symbolic qualities of objects and places have received increased attention (Rapoport, 1970, 1976, 1982a,b; Relph, 1976; Duncan, 1985; Altman & Low, 1992; Cooper Marcus, 1992; Low, 1992; Mazumdar, 1992b; M a z u m d a r & Mazumdar, in press a). For some the physical environment is 'seen as a con- text in which fundamental h u m a n values can be cultivated and the h u m a n spirit can be enriched' (Stokols, 1990, p. 642). Through this paper we bring attention to the 'sacred' component in people-place attachment an'd the religious component of the emo- tional and spiritual connections to place. We exam- ine the creation, content and meaning of sacred space in the lives of people and we argue that emo- tional connectedness is forged through the creation and sacralization of settings and through the use of such space for religious initiation and learning. 1 It is in sacred space that the religious self is nurtured and religious identity expressed and developed. Place A t t a c h m e n t and Identity The concepts of place attachment and identity have received much attention in the last 15 years. According to Relph (1976, p. 43) 'there is for virtually everyone a deep association with and consciousness of the places where we were born and grew up, where we live now or where we have had particularly moving experiences. This association seems~to constitute a vital source of both individual and cultural identity and security .... '. That 'self identity is inextricably tied to the people and settings of our past' is also expressed by Cooper Marcus (1992, p. 109). The focus of her study is the attachment and emotional connectedness to child- hood homes (see also Chawla, 1992). 'Emotion and place' according to Cooper Marcus (1992, p. 111) 'are inexplicably connected not in a causal relationship b u t in a transactional exchange, unique to each person'. Rowles (1983, p. 300) explored old people's attachment to place and how such attachment is 'intimately linked to preservation of a sense of personal identity' (see also Rubinstein & Parmelee, 1992). To Proshansky et al. (1983, p. 62) place identity goes beyond 'emotional attachment and belonging to particular places'. It is 'a complex cognitive structure which is characterized by a host of attitudes, values, thoughts, beliefs, meanings and behavior tendencies' (Proshansky et al., 1983, p. 63). Intertwined with the cognitive structure are the 'social definitions of physical settings 'which consist of the norms, behaviors, rules and regulations that are inherent in the use of these places and spaces' (Proshansky et al., 1983, pp. 63-64). They add that 'the development of place identity begins in the earliest process of child socialization' (Proshansky