ABSTRACT
The growing alienation of person from place (Relphs 1976) as well as the separation between community and region has caused a reconsideration of regionalism (Frampton 1983). While the traditional relationship between place, work, and people in the region was identified by Frederic LePlay and Patrick Geddes, the significance of ritual in providing the communal representation and affirmation of these relationships should be better understood in architectural terms. And whereas the Renaissance and the Baroque introduced ceremonial aspects of civic design through architectural mas ques (Bacon 1967), American society has primarily depended on nature and landscape in furthering a common ethos (Shepherd 1967). This aspect of regionalism motivates much of the interest in the Pueblo architecture of the Southwest. The mystique of Pueblo architecture lies in its ability to join living inanimate things in the continuing re creation of an authenticity of place, not in terms of architectural monuments but as participatory rites. In this chapter we emphasize the importance of rituals in furthering an "ethical imagination" by considering how the physical setting reinforces communal myths through mimetic enactment.
