From the Geil Archive (2)—Sacred Mountain Map

Click here for the "From the Geil Archive" Resource Center
To learn more about Geil, click here for the Accidental Ethnographer Resource Center
A year ago on Round and Square (17 August 2012)—Rural Religion in China-13

Two years ago on Round and Square (17 August 2011)—Seinfeld Ethnography: Bad Boy

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Please Note: All photographs marked "DHS" are with permission of the Doylestown Historical Society. All marked "RL" are my own pictures. None of these may not be reused without permission (e-mail me about mine, and I will put you in touch with DHS if you need to contact them). Photographs marked "RF" are "royalty free."

[a] Pathways RL

Click here for other posts in the Round and Square series "From the Geil Archive":

               Introduction                          1-Southern Mountain Museum             2-Sacred Mountain Map           

               3-Hat and Cattle                   4-Seeking Anthropology                       5-Curly Fives
               6-How to Write the Book      7-Mortarboard Man                               8-Orator

Even at this early date (the research interns haven't even arrived in Doylestown yet, and you don't even know their names), we'll do a few Geil tidbits before getting a big helping over the course of the fall. These are just the hors d'oeuvres, you see.

But they're good. Awful good, as we say back home.

[b] Movin' DHS

Today, I will show you my favorite single item from the entire 10,000 pages of the Geil archive. I got goosebumps when I first saw it, and I never tire of looking at it. It is a map William Edgar Geil drew of the five sacred mountains of China. It shows that he "got" the cosmology, and understood the proper directions of the seasons, colors, planets, and, well, just plain ol' movement for the quasi-mythological Former Kings (先王). 

Geil understood, and this map shows it. Not only does he have the mountains laid out in nice, proportional style, but he shows the well-established route (east, to south, to center, to west, to north, and back east to start it over again...spring, to summer, to mid-year, to autumn, to winter, and spring come 'round again). It's a bunch of ideas (trust me) in the form of a handy little map that shows that Geil was hardly all bluff and no larnin' (all hat and no cattle).

He knew a little something about Chinese history and culture, and I love his little page. Take a look. It isn't fancy, but it has all the goods. I also like the fact that what I regard as his "deepest" single page of notes has financial calculations computed on the side. This is another side of Geil you will discover if you stay with these posts.

Click here for other posts in the Round and Square series "From the Geil Archive":

               Introduction                          1-Southern Mountain Museum             2-Sacred Mountain Map           

               3-Hat and Cattle                   4-Seeking Anthropology                       5-Curly Fives
               6-How to Write the Book      7-Mortarboard Man                               8-Orator

[c] Jam-packed DHS