Raphaella Marie Gupiteo Interdisciplinary Studies Marketing 2-B

Synthesis Paper

Many have tried to define “Home,” but are still uncertain as to what what this word
actually means. As people grow older, their concept of home changes – it is no longer
merely a structure that people and their families return to after school or work. The
concept of home exists in the mind of all people yet is described in a different way for
each individual. Various disciplines explain it differently which is why there is a need to
determine what characteristics or attributes a home has in order to define it. This paper
will be looking into the concept of home based on three texts namely Imagined
Communities by Benedict Anderson, “I am one of the Mountain People” by Macario Tiu,
and Laudatu Si by Pope Francis under disciplines that are Sociology, Literature and
Theology.

In Anderson’s Imagined Communities, home is perceived to be a nation that has

no actual connection among the people living in the same geographical location, but
instead has an imagined one. Although people within the nation have an imagined bond,
the matters for which they fight for, inevitably unites and brings them together. Similarly,
in Macario Tiu’s “I am one of the Mountain People,” a nationalistic theory is still
incorporated as ethnicity is described as the basis of nation formation. This story
accentuated the sense of community of the narrator to which, even when they grew up
and were taught differently from their people, they still found themselves coming back
when their tribe encountered conflicts.

Laudato Si is an encyclical written by Pope Francis, which mainly discusses the

“common home” of living beings. In this text, the “home” that is referred to is the Earth
and Pope Francis intended to send a message about the church’s teachings on
environmental degradation and global warming. It asserts that although there have been
developments because of the efforts of humankind, they do not necessarily contribute to
a sustainable human development. The text continues to assert that the negative
environmental effects on the earth are attributed to human neglect or mistreatment and
irresponsibility.

These three disciplines discuss the concepts of home from different perspectives
and have described them as nations and used terms such as ethnonationalism, as well
as referred to it as a “shared inheritance” from God. The nation is argued by Anderson in
Imagined Communities as an imaginary community that has members with no actual
intimate connection that links them personally, yet sacrifice themselves for the greater
good of said community. In the same way, the narrator from “I am one of the Mountain
People” left everything behind to return to his tribe and fight with them. Their viewpoints
all lean toward the recognition of a bond or shared heritage to which its members feel the
need to conform to. Based on these commonalities, an inference can be drawn that the
concept of “home” is the recognition of an identity wherein members share the same
values regarding the sense of community and responsibility for their shared dwelling place
and people.