Gardens and Cultural Change

"Gardens contain time, culture, and nature. They are powerful symbolic spaces in which a society may project its ideals, to conjure or contrive cultural changes by rooting them in the flow of natural processes. Five authors explore the variety of relationships between garden making and cultural changes in Argentine, the Caribbean, Mexico, and the United States. They show how gardens have been expressive of popular cultural inventions, but could also be attempts at political manipulations, and sometimes place of cultural resistance by subjugated people. Issues of identity and ideology, political coercion and resistance apply equally throughout the continent, inviting a renewed attention to gardens as places where cultural identities are forged and contested. The authors engage in different approaches and conflicting interpretations, revealing the existence of debates and issues among scholars at a remove from the supposed divide between English and Spanish cultures."--BOOK JACKET.