First Post. So bear with me while I get the hang of it.
Orientation is an interesting world. Essentially, it is a statement about what one values(e.g. family orientated person, work orientated culture) and suggest that the person or thing is being defined by locating oneself in relation to X. To get one's bearings also has this meaning as well as signifying outlook, values, politics, sexual , aesthetic preferences etc.
The word orientation derives from the word orient, meaning east. The east is that direction from which the sun comes over the horizon. The sun is the source of life, heat and light. Before the advent of artificial light it was dangerous, sometimes impossible to stray too far away from home. This fact, added to the body's circadian rhythms, meant that people would turn inwards at night and outwards during the day(physically going inside the shelter, and psychically going from wakefullness to sleep). Before the advent of standarised time and calendars, winter was marked by less sun. This is still the case in the northern hemisphere, (while countries in the southern hemisphere live with a calendar at odds with their experience of the passage of the season - [witness for example bearded, booted, winterproof Santa Claus traipsing around Brazil in December, the hottest part of the year look for non existant chimneys! ])
So winter and night are marked by absence of the Sun while Summer and day are marked by its presence. The solstices and the equinoxes are defined by the relative amounts of daylight and darkness. Raising animals or crops depends on knowing when to plant and harvest crops and when animals come in to season. Clearly then, the sun was for millennia central in locating ourselves, that is to say determining our position in time and space.
Today, many of us no longer are directly involved in agriculture and farming. We have clocks and sattelite navigation in our cars, and are protected from the elements by central heating and from darkness by house and street lights.
We also know that it is the Earth which orbits the Sun, and that the Sun is one of billions of stars circling the center of the universe.
"World" signifies more than physical geography, hills, valleys, rivers and so on. The world is also composed of other people, and the word world also signifies, interpersonal relations. What compasses are valid here and why? Posts appreciated, will add my thoughts soon.
