Abstract
Space is a phenomenon belonging to both the natural and the
spiritual world. This is why people act according to the fundamental features
of space, establishing complex organization systems. So, whenever one is
conducting a research about space he cannot ignore the attitude of spirit in
front of the physical world, which generates symbolic meanings that might be
used in order to analyze people’s relation to the context. Emerging from
symbols, it is very interesting to notice what people traditionally mean by
“good place” and “bad place” and what makes us distinguish them today. Several
issues in the paper will exemplify the general tendency in two different
locations of the Greek-Albanian Border area. Aspects like religious edifices, public
space, name, defense, path, signs of modernity reveal, through their
symbolic content, the connection established between people and place at one
moment and how they modify the condition of that place according to their
perception about its intrinsic power… enforcing its primary character rather
than changing it by contemporary artificial means.
1.
Space.
Place. Settlement.
Space is a
phenomenon belonging to both the natural and spiritual world. It has an
objective existence, being at the same time, a fundamental dimension of
people’s way of thinking- a frame, a category and an elementary explanation
form.
In order to find out people’s relation to space, we
have to consider, first of all, a finite dimension, dominated by easily
recognizable guide marks. Due to its definition through additional elements,
space becomes qualitative in relation to objects. This finite part of space
represents the place, which people are consubstantial with, as the connection
between them comes from the past. Places are subject to deliberate actions of
human groups, being transformed into shelters for themselves and their
activities. This is how people generate the human settlements, whose definition
varies from one author to another. However, constants in these definitions
remain the finite character of the settlement and its delimitation - the two
most relevant aspects when describing its inner and outer relations.
Between people and place there might be more than a
relation, there might be a spiritual kinship, which could constitute both a
cause and a consequence of the associative life that appeared at one moment in
history.
2.
People
and the context
People think and act according to the fundamental features
of space, often generating complex organization systems, based on its specific
character, so space research may not ignore all the subtle relations that
explain the attitude of spirit in front of the material world. Based on this
attitude, we can identify symbols that offer interesting interpretations when
analyzing the way people relate to a certain context.
3.
About
the local
Delimiting space,
based on well established rules, and operating within a limited space,
according to specific aspects, is what creates the local. The lure of the local
is not a simple nostalgia of an existence based on the position of the
settlement, but a strong political and emotional argument in the perception of
the local in a complex society.
Knowing the unique
character of the border regions, the study will focus on two Greek settlements -
Molivdoskepastos and Kalovrisi, in the Greek-Albanian border area. In this
case, two terms must be defined: border and neighborhood. From an anthropological
point of view, we are presented the neighborhood as an extension or a complement
of the familial space which it surrounds, including people in a larger, but
organic unit. The same source lets us know that the borderline indicates to
people where a certain place ends, enclosing the familiar world and opening the
unknown one.
4.
Strong
place. Weak place.
As the
representation of space depends to a great extent on how certain elements are
spread, it also depends on their simple presence within that space. The
presence of these elements is a result of the process which allows people to
enrich the place they live with personalized features, generating a specific
dynamic of the landscape as an echo of their identity.
The landscape is
always unstable, it often has multiple meanings and, although it is permanently
subject to relations of power and control, the landscape can never be
considered a property. Public or private space, public or private property and
even landscape are bearing the footprints of the so-called “property on
identity”. In other words, landscape, identity and property are inseparable.
The lure of the local can be noticed in people’s effort to personalize the
space and it is nothing but the action of generating the possibility of
revealing identity.
Ethnographic
studies often use the distinction between good place and bad place, between
strong places and weak places, which represents a challenge in the
interpretation of symbolic coordinates of different places.
In this context,
the strong place can be understood as a personalized place, whose community
sets witnesses of the local character through the organization of specific
elements. This is why we will consider several aspects specific to both of the
villages mentioned above: name, religious edifices, public space, private
space, sings of modernity. All of these issues will be separately analyzed and
interpreted in a comparative manner.
1.
The
way to a collective representation
If space is
influenced by the position or the form of elements and by the directions or the
local events, then the space itself affects everything it surrounds. This ability
of the space to determine its own content through time is nothing but its
intrinsic power.
All the signs that
prove a personalized place, all the modifications and changes provided by
people follow this intrinsic power of the place rather than interfere with it.
In fact, every human being perceives only the reality detected and interpreted
on his own. This modal interpretation is possible due to the symbols translated
by the human subjectivity, so the only relevant relation is established between
the individual representation of space and the collective representation,
generated by the members of the community at one moment in time. This is how
space becomes a constant in the way people perceive the world, a constant that people articulate according to
their spiritual needs.
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