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The cycle of life

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Posted on 2020-12-18 in

Dawn and sunset. Henry Peach Robinson. Postcard. Author’s personal archive.

We humans are surely influenced by geographical structure, social context and historical time, all personal or collective activity within the cycle of everyday life (be it a working or a non-working day) being marked by a set of rituals meant to promote its success. Traditionally conceived as cyclical processes, they are repeated endlessly and susceptible to a number of unchanging regularities or constants which have been observed and transmitted by generations. (more…)

Is social cohesion in crisis?

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Posted on 2018-12-07 in
Drinks and a good old chat. Zeanuri (Bizkaia), c. 1920. Felipe Manterola Collection

Drinks and a good old chat. Zeanuri (Bizkaia), c. 1920. Felipe Manterola Collection. Labayru Fundazioa Photographic Archive.

“A big question is whether we could live outside of society”, said the author of an autobiographical novel I have recently read and very much enjoyed. “The esteem of others is ultimately the only testimony of our existence”, he added. The thought set me thinking and brought to mind an extensive interview to Koldo Mitxelena, where he admitted attending high mass in Errenteria, his hometown, because he loved talking to friends and acquaintances before and especially after the religious celebration. I remember my father using the same reasoning to justify his preference for the Sunday solemn mass at St Mary’s Parish Church in Gernika. (more…)

Carrito

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