Great Plains Studies, Center for

 

Date of this Version

2006

Comments

Published in GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY 26:3 (Summer 2006). Copyright © 2006 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Abstract

Among every known people, places are named, and in every known place, stories are told. Yet as one place, Jerusalem, makes so abundantly clear, the meanings of the place and the variety of stories attached to it can derive from a variety of traditions and can lead in many different directions. Just as various pilgrims are drawn to some sacred places, so do all people, in all places, come to know the meanings of at least some places through names, with the stories about them capturing their deeper significance, from the sacred to the mundane. Yet for each such place, it is possible for its names and stories to vary. Names for places change; stories about them get revised, discarded, or created anew. At times, this variation ("Are we now in the Old or the New Jerusalem?") can be a source of stress and strain, as a single place can be identified in different ways, each with its own story to tell, with each story advancing different ways of living there. And thus, as places are identified through their names and stories, they become known, sometimes in very different ways, carrying various meanings about proper living, from the peoples of the Middle East, to the Great Plains of America.

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