The Nexus of Soil and Culture.

As reflected in a special issue of Science (2004), soil is the final frontier of environmental research.  The critical role of soil in biogeochemical processes is linked 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, and a focal concept in our new book Soil and Culture (Springer 2010).

As soil is a key consideration in the everyday life of many, rather than an abstract scientific concept to a few, Soil and Culture explores the perception of soil in ancient, traditional, and modern societies.  It looks depictions of soil in the visual and written arts, and the perceptions, impacts, and study of soils in religion, environmental philosophy, anthropology, archaeology, and wine production. Like soils, humans dwell in the dark, as well as the light. Thus we have extended the reach of topics to those such as the influence of soils on disease and warfare.

The intersection of soil and culture is one characterized by two-way streets. Thus we have chapters that show the use of soils as sources of pigments, and representations of soil in western art on one hand (soil informing art), as well as a chapter in which art is used to help reconstruct erosion histories in China (art informing soil).