ABSTRACT
This chapter uses P. Bourdieu's theory of social practice to explore the changing cultural interpretations of mountains, the effect of this on the practice of mountaineering, and participation in alpine mountaineering as an act of social distinction. A complex array of socio-political factors has shaped, in a range of contrasting ways, the cultural lens through which human beings have perceived mountains and mountainous regions. The ready availability of local mountain dwellers who could offer their skills as 'pathfinders' to paying clients during the boom of early mountain exploration in the 18th and 19th centuries is testament to this fact. The identity associated with being a mountaineer has been entirely re-inscribed in our culture. Indeed, historically, cultural appropriation by social elites is a common social phenomenon. Many of the forms of symbolic capital associated with mountaineering today can be traced directly back to mountaineering's roots in Romanticism.
