Home: A Very Short Introduction by Michael Allen Fox

Author:Michael Allen Fox [Fox, Michael Allen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780191064296
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2016-09-26T00:00:00+00:00

The singularity of this perception comes from the notion that home is not a place at all, even though it has the durability of a ‘solid shelter’ made of bricks. The key image here is a metaphor suggesting that the story’s character possesses an internalized and portable ‘structure’, which is the possibility of renewed encounter with ‘the people who loved you’ at any time and place. What counts most is the capacity for especially significant personal relationships to linger as a kind of living presence within the fabric of consciousness, reinforcing one’s identity in an ongoing way.

These reflections on home are intriguing, but it is easy to be lulled into supposing that the idea of home as people who matter is freely constructed by us. In reality, however, quite dissimilar, more fixed, social formations of home exist in different cultures. For example, the Minangkabau of western Sumatra (Indonesia) are a matrilineal society that is Muslim, yet also blends into its belief system a nature philosophy known as adat. After marriage, a husband is expected to move with his wife into her mother’s house and provide for her family without, however, having much decision-making power.

Another example concerns the Akan people of Ghana. Kobena Hanson, who has studied this culture, argues that Akans, like Africans more generally, often live according to patterns that contrast markedly with those that prevail elsewhere.

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