[GalaxyHead]

Well, a comm grad class I am taking is a combination of a linguistics course about cultural metaphors, and I've decided to do my term paper on the cultural metaphor of 'the homeland'. Places like Arcadia or Kalevala.

What I need are some other examples of well known homelands in other cultures. Not so much holy lands or afterworlds, but places where people long to 'return to'.

Looking at you Felix.

[Talbain]

Not quite sure what you mean. Do you mean national homeland? Religious homeland? Spiritual homeland? The things you cite seem to relate to nationalistic belief in land ownership (particularly the Kalevala and its related Finnish beliefs), but those types of things have been going on for thousands of years. The Jewish homeland, Muslim homeland, Christian and Catholic homeland. I hate to ask this, but be more specific about which or whose homeland you're interested in writing a term paper about?

My ideas about homeland are mostly in that the word itself is constantly misunderstood, mostly in that it carries too many meanings and carries a prepositional thought into many languages that otherwise lack accurate terminology for expression. Homeland by itself could mean just about anything relating to origin.

If we're looking at a nationalist homeland, you might take a gander at some North/South Korean history, since there's definitely a lot of "longing to return."
_________________

[Felix]

Despite the fact that you specifically said "no holy lands," my first impression is that you are going to be phenomenally shooting yourself in the foot if you deliberately dodge Israel.

That said, asking this question on (what is ostensibly) a videogame forum is an invitation to have a field day with Norse myth.

Stay tuned(?)

[GalaxyHead]

Well, I won't be dodging holy lands completely, but the metaphor of Isreal as a holy land and as a homeland differ slightly in meaning. And I will discuss this. Or I may integrate them, who knows, this is just an idea so far! If you can give me an example of how Isreal is used as a metaphor for a homeland, that would be awesome, otherwise I have to research it anyway.

Talbain, the metaphor of the homeland that I will be focusing on is mainly what people feel an attachment to as their 'home', or the place they want to return to. They can be nationalistic as well, such as Russia's 'motherland'. But when people say "I want to return to the motherland", there is all sorts of other meanings attached to this statement rather than just "I want to go back to the country Russia."

I could take the easy route and do afterworlds like Nirvana or Valhala, but I have to be different in everything I do.


Really, any suggestions are welcome.

P.S. I ask this question here mainly because, despite being a video game forum, people come from various cultural backgrounds.

[spinach]

liberia

growing up, the Motherland was always africa, and every adult in my life would like to see it someday

if you'd like to read further into that, don't forget to look up garveyism

also, there's this thing about down home being the south, even for people who've never been. not sure if some of you guys catch it, but it pops up often enough in commercials and shit. and southern hospitality

[GalaxyHead]

Thank you!

[spinach]

you're welcome!

[rabite gets whacked!]

I wonder what Native Americans (North and South) have to say about this?
_________________

[Ebrey]

For many people on the West and East Coast of the US, The Homeland is the Midwest or South. It's the setting of your high school stories, and the place you go back to once a year for Christmas, but my God, you really don't want to live there again. It might be interesting to write about since it's the opposite of homelands that people want to return to.

[remote]

[internisus]

I know Israel has of course been brought up, but I want to mention that the idea of zionism is very romantic and worth your research.

[falsedan]

cue John Bull and Tommy Atkins
_________________

[CubaLibre]

I think it'd be interesting to investigate the way that nations with a long history refer to "mother England" and "mother Russia" in an abstract sense that's nonetheless wrapped up intimately in geography, which is sort of an alien idea to Americans, who associate their nationality with a set of ideals apart from any physical place.
_________________
Let's Play, starring me.

[GalaxyHead]

[PianoMap]

[Isfet]

lol Zionism




after it got away from the whole thing with the Messiah appearing if a lot of Jews got together in one spot, it sort of got nasty.

[GalaxyHead]

To give more details, this paper is mainly how people use this metaphor of 'the homeland' as a means of making sense of their social reality. So, in the past, in Greece, men would work hard for the ideal of 'returning to Arcadia', which was considered a utopia of peace and is also it's own metaphor of man's oneness with nature. So this real physical place, Arcadia (an actual city), was perceived to be a utopian homeland, and these thoughts shaped how these men and women lived their lives and perceived the rest of the world.

[Ebrey]

That might be true with Greeks from Arcadia, but isn't it a minority case? The typical immigrant is working hard so he can bring his wife and kids over to his new country, and never wants to back to the homeland.

And then they start waxing nostalgic for 'the homeland' when their daughter starts dating a black guy.

[spinach]

ever been homesick, ebrey?

[GalaxyHead]

[secret character]

Could you maybe work "natural", "organic", and other sorts of vaguely hippie-ish followings into this?
_________________
☹☹☹☹☹☹☹☹☹
☹☹☹☹☹☹☹☹☺
☹☹☹☹☹☹☹☹☹

[GalaxyHead]

Does the hippie movement have a specific place they consider their homeland? I thought they just sucked up anything remotely spiritual from buddhism and hiduism through a cloud of weed.

I dunno, I am now considering doing my paper on the metaphor of the fulfilled life as seen through modern western literature/hollywood. You know, man is born, man leaves home to fight in war, man finds honor through war, man marries his true love, man dies having climbed a mountain, etc.

[stotelheim]

Athens in the Hellenistic kingdoms that sprung up after alexander died

I should look into the legends about prestor johns kingdom or whatever it was called, seems like it might be relevant
_________________
go away extralife

[secret character]

[extrabastardformula]

[Capt. Caveman]

This is actually a pretty big can of worms because there are lots of subtle shades of meaning difference in the idea of "the homeland"

It's going to mean something different to a people who have been forcibly exiled than it does to a people who have just sort of...dispersed over time. Likewise, it obviously means something different when it refers to a present location (The Department of Homeland Security), than when it represents some distant, perhaps even fictitious utopia (see: cults who believe in aliens coming to take them home, etc.)

I think every culture has a sense of "homeland" but what I think it is you're really asking about is how displaced cultures relate to their "homeland" and mythologize it, make it the reason for living. So really the question would be like "how do displaced cultures create a social reality?"

Am I making any sense at all

[Talbain]

[shnozlak]

the home land as you all are stating it seems to be as much a state of mind as a place. Corny as it sounds my homeland is the open road. Im always waiting to get back on the road and go somewhere far away, this feeling is nearly always with me. The road is the embodiment of a restlessness that feeds it self endlessly. The restlessness to return to the road is like a little fire inside. It gives me meaning to a certain degree, gives me something to think about when life is boring or harsh.
_________________
Mixtapes galore ~ VG MUSIC
ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ http://phantom-photon.tumblr.com/

[GalaxyHead]

[Talbain]