Browsing by Subject "vuoret"

The thesis is about the landscape ideas of mountain guides on Mount Kenya in central Kenya. The aim of the thesis is to understand how the guides who walk the mountain for a living experience the landscape. The thesis explores theories of landscape as a view, as a way of seeing and phenomenological theories of experiencing landscape. These different perspectives shed light on how the mountain has been conceptualized at different times and by different groups, which all affect the ideas of the guides. The thesis also describes the occupational culture of the guides and trekking on Mount Kenya in detail. Walking as a way of experiencing the landscape is examined theoretically and through ethnographic material. The ethnographic material was gathered during a three-month fieldwork period from May to July 2010 in Kenya. The fieldwork included interviews with mountain guides and participant observation on two treks to the mountain. A phenomenological approach is used in analysing guides’ practices of moving in the landscape. The guides’ landscape ideas are affected by traditional Gikuyu ideas of Mount Kenya, western cultural ideas of climbing and the landscape, as well as their own experiences of moving in the landscape. The Gikuyu ethnic group traditionally saw Mount Kenya as a sacred landscape feature, but it was not traditionally climbed by them. The western appreciation of walking in the landscape and mountaineering has a cultural history that explorers and settlers brought with them, as they named places, formed trails and made maps of the mountain. Western landscape ideas also affected the formation of the national park. In mountaineering, the journey is often as important as arriving. Sacredness on Mount Kenya is today most relevant in the idea of pilgrimage that many tourists have, of a journey in search of transformation. The guides walk and carry for a living and perceive the landscape through constant movement. They have learned to know the routes and landscape in detail. Stories and memories of events on the mountain are tied to the landscape and shared among those who know the mountain. For a guide, Mount Kenya is often sentimentally significant. The mountain is able to encompass varying landscape ideas and the experience of climbing is not the same for everyone.