Home is an environment which encompasses the enclosed space of privacy and sharing.
Primitive man did not have home; He was savage, bereft of concept of privacy as well as sharing. And then agriculture happened. Sharing became imperative. Symbiotic relationship between men and women was established. Men worked in the fields while women stayed back taking care of the children. Institutions of bread winner and home maker evolved. Dwelling evolved into home.
As tribes evolved into communities, concept of privacy between families and sharing among and within families appeared and became sacrosanct gradually. Man learnt to think of others’ needs in addition to his own.
There used to be a courtyard in a house. It provided privacy to the family from neighbors. It also served as the space for sharing among individuals of the family, particularly female members. Respect for privacy of individual is a comparatively modern idea. Now it overrides every other rights of an individual besides the right to life. In earlier times members of a family were just components of the family. Even husband and wife would have to struggle to find private space for intimate moments.
As for sharing, it was intense between members of a family as well as between families in a community. There was a well defined code of conduct for the members of a family and community. Authority was centralized in the eldest member of the family. The family was akin to an organic being, the individuals being its various organs. Relationships defined behavior of individuals. Then home was centered on children. Sharing was absolute and indispensible. There was bonding, love as well as conflict.
Far-reaching changes now define the dimensions of home. Privacy occupies center stage and sharing has declined. Unimaginable technological advances have caused revolutionary changes in the structure and function of a home. With individuality becoming the dominant theme the progeny are no longer in the center of a family, they are just incidental; staying of old parents in the home is embarrassing.
Emphasis is on the development of individual so as to realize its full potential.
Now homes do not have courtyards. Sharing is restricted to dining space in the house.
The modern woman is no longer confined within the walls of the house The institution of housewife or home maker is on the verge of extinction. Earlier the identity of a woman was defined by reference to her father, brother, husband or son. She had no individual identity. Now she is individual in her own might. The conflict between the two identities has sharpened. Naturally she has less priority and leisure for the management of home. The contention, that women are forced by the increasing cost of living to work outside for adding to the family’s income is no longer valid in the present upward mobile society. A more valid observation would be that commitment to individuality inhibits any compromise with personal advances and ambitions. As parenting interferes with it, there is craze for DISK (Double income single child) and DINK (Double income no child) families. Is this not a clear indication that children are no longer in the focus? Parents and other adults are giving in to proclivity for self -aggrandizement and self- fulfillment.
Complementary relation between man and wife no longer holds. Each of them has the same niche. Sharing is at nadir and privacy at zenith.
Then homes got crowded with passage of time. Every body used to be interested in every other member of the household. Now as the children attain adulthood they move out. Ultimately only old couple live in the house, which was formerly a home.
Now homes have more baggage and less people. Crèches and old age homes have evolved to take care of children and old persons. Home, as a space which encompassed a lot of sorrow, failures and conflict along with a little happiness, success and harmony, needs to be redefined.
Evolution is progressive as well as retrogessive