O udrożnieniu domu i udomowieniu drogi

Abstract

It is the aim of the paper to analyse the difference between images (connotations) related to such categories as journey and home which are embedded in symbolic systems and the contemporary experiences of journey and home. The author follows the successive disappearance of former attributes of journey such as dangers, unpredictability or sacredness which emerges from facing the strange: places of transition become habitual and similar to home-places. He also traces the gradual extinction of former features of home characteristic for settled societies. Depending upon the rate of mobility within a society home loses its uniqueness and stability and turns into a place of transition. The number of people grows, who remember not only one "native home" but many of them. It is not necessary that currently inhabited places should lose their value for the benefit of remembered (i.e. constructed) "aboriginal places". Under specific circumstances value can be connected to a greater amount of places in human experience.