William Norton

Competing Identities and Contested Places: Mormons in Nauvoo and Voree

The religious restoration movement in the early nineteenth century United States that involved the emergence of the Mormon (Latter Day Saint) family of religions has contributed to the complex politics of identity and place that characterize the contemporary American cultural scene. Since its 1830 beginnings, but especially following the 1844 death of the founder, Joseph Smith, Jr., the movement has been fertile ground for schismatic tendencies. Major claimants to the church leadership in 1844 included Brigham Young who was followed by the majority of members, and James Strang, who attracted a much smaller group of adherents. Some church members also regarded Smiths son, Joseph Smith III, as the rightful leader. The principal 1844 settlement, Nauvoo, Illinois, was abandoned with Young accepted as leader by most Mormons and initiating the exodus to the intermontane West, and Strang founding a small and short-lived settlement in Voree, Wisconsin. This paper examines the competing identities of four of the churches belonging to the Mormon family as these relate to the symbolic importance of church name, and discusses two contested places of Mormon settlement, Nauvoo and Voree, as these are remembered and reinvented.

Behavior Analysis and the Cultural Geographic Study of Place

During the period of evolution of social science disciplines, positivism was seen not as one philosophy of science but rather as the one philosophy; accordingly, questions of meaning and interpretation were of little importance in both physical and social sciences. This situation changed dramatically in the mid-twentieth century following the waning of positivism as a social science philosophy. Today, there are numerous philosophies to which the social scientist can turn, one of which is positivism as most clearly articulated in psychological behaviorism and as applied in sociology and anthropology. A consideration of recent ideas about place creation suggests that it is possible that cultural geography might benefit from a judicious use of behaviorist concepts in such analyses. Applications to the Mormon settlement of the American West and to Dutch settlement in South Africa are provided as preliminary examples.

Following rules in the intermontane west: 19th-century mormon settlement.

The academic discipline of human geography is concerned with human activities, especially as these relate to physical landscapes and contribute to the modification of those landscapes. Although little attention has been paid to objectivist philosophies to inform human geography, behavior analysis might offer a useful explanatory model. As an example, a behavior analysis of selected aspects of 19th-century Mormon movement and settlement in the intermontane West is conducted. Mormons are a society of believers who practice cooperative effort and support for other members, and the Mormon church is governed by priesthood authority with members being called to perform tasks. This analysis employs the concepts of metacontingency, rule-governed behavior, and delayed reinforcement to analyze how Mormons settled the intermontane West.

The Analysis of Process in Historical Geography

Abstract Historical geographers may profitably analyse process, and related form evolution, as one principal research method. The frequent emphasis placed on static analysis of past forms and on the subsequent interpretation of process is unfortunate. It is desirable to investigate process explicitly and to deduce forms from such analyses. Such a method is in accord with current developments in history and economic history. Historical geographers have much to contribute on both methodological and empirical levels. The use of counterfactuals is urged as one means of understanding form evolution.

Behavior Analysis and Cultural Geography

Cultural geography lacks a conceptually rigorous and empirically meaningful understanding of human behavior to facilitate analyses of human landscape creation. A possible solution is employment of the concepts and principles of behavior analysis, as developed in psychology, and as applied in sociology, anthropology, and economics. For cultural geographers, this suggestion is at variance with most other recent conceptual contributions that emphasize alternative social theorizations, such as those associated with Marxism, humanism, or critical science. Much of the behavior involved in the creation of human landscapes involves delayed outcomes, a situation that can be accommodated in the behavior-analytic concept of rule-governed behavior. A preliminary application of behavior analysis to the understanding of nineteenth century landscape change in southeastern Australia, using the concepts of operant conditioning, rule-governed behavior, and metacontingency, indicates the value of the approach.