Beth
<<Do people who have lived in the one place all their lives [a
small village for example] develop a stronger link to their own history
[family and local] than those who have moved frequently? >>
Your question suggests to me the reason why you feel you are <chasing your
tail>. Your question makes assumptions that are unestablished - assumptions
that many (most?) people make but which are, I feel, dubious.
Why is it always presumed that the feeling of <history> must strongly
relate to family, place of birth, place of upbringing, nation etc.? Often
it does and for good reasons, but, after years of amateur dabbling in
history, archaeology etc, I have become firmly convinced (and have heard
others say) that those who take an interest in history at all tend to take
an interest in the history of the place where they are NOW. i.e. they
identify, among other things, with those who preceded them <in this place>
- their current locality. Not invariably true by any means, but this is why
many amateur historians have an interest in several localities - there is
usually a good reason, and professional historians have also too generally
aggregated a number of (possibly disparate) topics in their career,
depending on where their reading took them.
My own involvement in the story of my family, of the story of Romney Marsh,
of the Cinque Ports, is life-long, because of my family associations and my
familiarity from childhood with the area. Since living in Tenterden, I am
deeply interested in this town's history BECAUSE I AM HERE - i.e. Tenterden
has come to me. I retain a deep interest in the history of Essex, of
London, of East Lothian in Scotland - all for various associative reasons,
none of them related to family or forebears. I don't think I am unusual. As
I get older I become more interested in medical history (I am a physician).
I took no notice of it in youth, despite always being involved in history
generally, but now I increasingly find medical history to be relevant
today. Though I have to add that malaria has led me (via my Romney Marsh
interest) into medical history as well, so it ties to my original Local
History subject.
So yoyr real question is - <What motivates people to take up a particular
historical interest?> and nobody, to my knowledge, has really dissected
that problem, though there has been a lot written abou it (upon which the
professionals reading thiese messages can probably help you better than I
can). The answer to the question is of course that there are many motives -
but the biggest motive is the one that nobody mentions - you climb Everest
BECAUSE IT IS THERE - in front of your eyes <g>
******************************************************************
Nick Hudd { Dr N P Hudd MA FRCP, Tenterden, Kent. }
< [log in to unmask] >
< http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/nphudd/ >
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|