Myths are stories created to give meaning to social order or values. They reflect the underlying human need to find patterns of order in the social world and to combat chaos and disorder. These stories as myths come to express the fears, dreams, goals, anxieties, and ambitions of societies and individuals, as well as the central ideas of the time.
Exoticism is sometimes seen as the charm of the unfamiliar or the creation of an exciting, inaccessible “other”. It is often used to sensationalise cultural difference, presenting these desirable “others” – be they people, places or products - as a unified entity with attributes and ways completely different to one’s own.
The acquisition of knowledge or the perfection of a skill creates a sense of mastery in a person (or group of people). At its core, it embodies a desire for self- improvement, which itself can become addictive, as people strive towards an end goal that they may never be able to reach. Mastery is a double-edged sword, as it can create a sense of pride (sometimes falsely), confidence (sometimes unfounded), and power (sometimes corruptive) within individuals.
The point at which local culture is influenced and reformed by external global trends. Glocal culture celebrates the external influences of globalisation through a cultural norming worldwide. The concept of glocal plays a role in the way we interpret human and social truths.
Identity is made up of the qualities, beliefs, personality traits, looks and expressions that define a person or a group. Identity is created through emotional perceptions of the self and of the other, and naturally creates feelings of inclusion and exclusion. It is always in the meeting with the other that the identity of the self is formed.
Individuals are influenced and organised by the path they tread in life, through a series of engrained habits, routines and socialised norms. Habitus is the way in which individuals come to perceive the social and cultural world around them. Consequently, it guides their everyday behaviour.
A celebration, emotional experience, or transitional moment in life when an individual leaves one social group to enter another. A rite of passage involves a significant change of status in society, where the individual grows and becomes more enlightened.
Based on the experience of exchange, reciprocity relates to the practice of giving and receiving, through objects as well as gestures. Reciprocity brings the material and the emotional world into one place, placing importance on the symbolic nature of objects and the emotional expectation of exchange.
