Bret Marfut Alternate reading Lane

The Solace of Fierce Landscapes, yet another book by Belden Lane, provides an interesting description of the meaning of habitus. According to Lane, habitus is the ritualized way of perceiving reality. Lane talks about how habitat and habitus are different from each other, one being place and one being a combination of place and social construction. However, the book also says that both are becoming less compelling in today’s culture. Human nature is to change the world instead of reacting to it. Consequently, we are no longer defined by where we live. Habitat is now just scenery, and habitus has become “a nonsacramental, individualistic quest for transcendent experience.” I think this aligns with Lane’s axiom that sacred place can be ordinary place, ritually made extraordinary. The problem presented in this book is that we do not allow ritual to leave an extraordinary connotation on the place; we tend instead to consider only the event itself as spiritual.