Ancestral home
[citation needed] The term can refer to an individual house or estate, or to a broader geographic area such as a town, a region, or an entire country.
[4]Ancestral homes are considered by some social scientists to be central to humans' need to acquire a sense of rootedness and smoothly transition to and from different stages of life.
[6] Certain cultural groups have also found ways of engaging and caring for their ancestral homes despite physical separation or destruction in the wake of war or natural disasters.
In the case of the Hyolmo, the destruction of their local villages in Kathmandu following the 2015 earthquake led some community members to rebuild their ancestral homes from rubble as a way of physically retaining a connection to their place.
Davide Torri, a social scientist, has noted this as the Hyolmo’s way of keeping their heritage alive by finding and building a place for cultural and religious activities and maintaining a sense of community.
[9] Other social and political factors such as discrimination and the lack of opportunities for minority groups in foreign countries also drive the flows of expatriates returning to one’s ancestral homeland.
[12][13] In Kerala, a south-western Indian state, ancestral homes are constructed using native materials including wood, mud, bamboo and straw.
[14] These simpler and more traditional architectural styles have natural ways of conserving energy, including wind catchers, temperature regulation and rainwater irrigation as well as protection from the elements.
[19][18] Ancestral halls in Chinese culture serve a variety of purposes, including a play area for children, and also host significant events such as family gatherings, weddings, town meetings, celebrations, homecomings and even public punishment.
Self-initiated expatriates often undergo a form of cultural adjustment and assimilation that differs widely according to individual circumstance and upbringing, or even familiarity with the language and local way of life.
[9] This experience can also often lead to the individual feeling either in an ethnic minority or majority, or be fraught with issues from a language barrier, discrimination, and a general difficulty integrating after living overseas.
[21] The traditional Thai house[22] has acquired its own unique style after hundreds of years of evolution, made from wood and raised over pillars, it is adapted perfectly to its environment.
Thai houses have in common, no matter in which area of the country are built, the manner in which their platform is raised over poles offering a shield against rough weather, wildlife and dirt.
One author has said of the phrase ancestral home that it "tends to conjure up images of European barons dining in chilly halls while dark portraits and empty suits of armor peer down silently".
[24] The British historical drama television series Downton Abbey was filmed in Highclere Castle, the ancestral home of several families, including the current Lord and Lady Carnarvon.
In contemporary Filipino culture, artists and entrepreneurs explore different uses of their local ancestral homes as part of the process of making art, promoting a family business, or tourism.
[25] The Pablo S. Antonio Residence in Pasay City, the Syquia Mansion in Vigan and Casa Gorordo in Cebu are examples of ancestral homes that have used art as a promotional tool for the tourism and reception of their family’s legacy.
[26] Vikram Seth's novel as well as the Netflix Series of the same name A Suitable Boy, shows the neglect of the ancestral home of the Khans, a fictional family of feudal lords in the decade following the India-Pakistan divide.
[27] Researchers such as Edward Ademolu have explored the ways in which individuals' visual art surrounding their real and imagined ancestral homes can speak to wider discourses of meaning through its sensory and structural elements.
