LIFE TRACKS

According to Democritus, the world is made as the atoms that diffuse into the void combine in accordance with predetermined laws and rules. This materialist approach is corrected by Epicurus, to the extent that he argues that the world is also made by the atoms that move about in a way that does not necessarily follow a predetermined manner: thanks to “clinamen” / the inclination of the trajectory, some atoms encounter the great flows of other atoms and thus new and different forms and hypostases emerge. That is to say, freedom is not necessarily lost in the rapids of determinism. According to this approach, the members of a society, in the context of socio-cultural patterns, shape, or better “strive” to shape –to “make real”– a way of being, so creating life tracks, trajectories of existence.
With reference to the above perspective, society is composed of the tracks of individuals and groups which converge or diverge, engage or move away, set boundaries in a clear or less so manner, are differentiated or homogenised, coexist or interact, become entrenched or open up, exclude or are excluded, clash or cooperate, thus creating the “drama” of social life.
Cimier Yoann presents the ephemeral settlements on Tunissian beaches, Κarolin Klueppel highlights the privileged (and perhaps unique) status of girls in an ethnic Indian group –from the point of view, of course, of the social power of women; Polixeni Papapetrou, with a reference to Gilles Deleuze (animality – vitality), lightly and metaphorically shows the repulsion of the animal dimension of the human adventure, Sanne De Wilde shows how Chinese society provides a specific path for people of small size –dwarves in a theme park–, Laurence Rasti shows how another society prescribes the life of homosexuals through ghettoisation, Klaus Pichler reflects the way of life of “marginal” Viennese, Danila Tkachenko explores the choice of a form of primitivism and a return to nature and, finally, Naumsa Leuba focuses on a form of totemism with shades of surrealism.