Mental Mapping Method in Anthropological Studies on Cultural Landscape

Abstract

This paper presents the method of mental mapping, adapted for the purposes of anthropological research on perception and assessment of urbanised spaces. Its application is also discussed in the evaluation of cultural landscape, taking into account the aspect of human experience. The method allows for examination of the inhabited environment’s perceptions and their externalisation in the form of mental maps constructed on the basis of residents’ relations of examined locations. The analysis of mental maps allows both for identification and description of elements that create the structure of the space and the evaluation of their role in the life of the community and in the formation of a harmonious landscape. The source basis of the article, apart from works referred to in the bibliography, are ethnographic field studies conducted between 2014 and 2017 in ten villages in the Kielce Voivodeship and in Kielce.

Keywords

• space
• place
• cultural landscape
• sign
• mental map
• anthropology of culture