One’s own place in Lithuanian indigenous culture

Tiriamasis dalykas – savos vietos samprata ir vietoms teikiama reikšmė lietuvių prigimtinėje kultūroje. Tikslas – pasiaiškinti, kaip žmogus suvokia „savą“ (gyvenamą, lankomą ar prisimenamą) vietą, kokius ryšius su ja užmezga ir kokiu elgesiu ar žodžiais šiuos santykius išreiškia. Metodai – analitinis, struktūrinis-semantinis, interpretacinis, fenomenologinis. Išvados: lietuvių prigimtinėje kultūroje vietos gali būti suprantamos kaip gyvi, jaučiantys ar mąstantys objektai (subjektai); jie kraštovaizdyje regimi kaip daiktai ir modeliuoja tarp jų plytinčias erdves (ertmes). Žmogus suvokia ir jaučia vietas daugeliu būdų: per taktilinius pojūčius (pvz., žemės lietimas kojomis), jausdamas ir išlaikydamas tam tikras dvasines būsenas (pvz., ramios vietos pajautimas), girdėdamas ir t. t.Paper examines how a person perceives their "own place" (where they live, visit, or remember), what relationship they establish with it, and through what behaviour or words they express this relationship. In Lithuanian the phrase “a place of one’s own” is used to describe a house or place of residence. Having a personal space (home) in Lithuanian culture is perceived as being of essential worth. Even an unborn baby has its own place, a "home" (in Lithuanian the words place, home are used to describe the baby’s placenta). On the other hand, it is necessary that the dead and spirits have a place as well (so that the spirit would have its own place, a cross must be placed on the grave immediately). In Lithuanian indigenous culture, a place is understood as a living, sentient, or thinking object, or things – the Lithuanian word for "thing" (daiktas) has two basic meanings: object and place. Place becomes a thing, because it covers an area of land that belongs to someone or someone lives there (people or other living beings, among them also trees, stones, springs, trails, etc). With the place’s beings one can communicate, interact, greet. The location of objects relative to each other creates a place – a place appears when one object is elsewhere, near it, above it, below it, etc. – the second object or entity becomes a place for the first. However, because of this, the subject doesn’t stop being at the same time a thing (being). The space stretching between objects in Lithuanian culture is understood as a void, emptiness. The more people recognize objects in space and engage with them, the more the space becomes dense with fewer voids. The places with which a person makes a connection become their own. Characteristically, that personal place is not only where one resides, but also those which they visit; they become their own, with them one can establish appropriate relationships. The article deals with folk singer Petras Zalanskas, who describes a trip to the woods, where he mowed hay in the marshes; such a trip was organized periodically in the forests of Dzūkija where there was a lack of hay, and would take two to three weeks. P. Zalanskas’ description of the trip to the marshes of Čepkeliai reflects the symbolic process of the "domestication" of a place, during which a connection with the place is created. Gloomy, dark, far away from residential areas, Petras Zalanskas calls that forest a “deaf place,” i.e. unable to speak or hear. This lack of sound in the sonic plane is countered by singing, which becomes a way to communicate with the forest, its trees, animals, reptiles, birds