A world within the world

Abstract

When people settle in one place they often express a desire to clarify their place in the world through the creation of small, self-contained worlds. These small worlds help orient people within the greater world by creating centers and boundaries around and within which the events of life take place. “One's identity is contingent on the sense of belonging to a place. The creation of place and entry is a fundamental human activity, enacted by all humans, beginning with the archetypal children's game of creating “houses” for themselves under tables, in boxes, or out of found materials.”² Small worlds take form in many shapes on many scales, from individual rooms and buildings to complete communities and cultures, each imaginable as a whole though connected through thresholds to larger realities. "The act of settling in a place was often mythologized as the creation of the world, and...the creation of a sacred place has principally provided the existential means for people to establish a center and thus define their place in the world."³