I would like here to insist on another dimension implicitly underlying the symbolic construction of W estern domesticity, a dimension which is rarely
acknowledged: the issue of stability. Hall (1985) rightly stresses how at the end of the 18th Century and during the 19th Century in England, hom e came to be taken to provide comfort and intimacy as well as the sense of security necessary to the conduct of family life, for a 'stable' family life, as she says. All, from the Evangelists to the Utilitarians, recognised the im portance of a stable family life and of a well organised home (Hall, 1985). D avidoff and H all (1985) note for their p a rt that the domestic cult of the late 18th Century and of the 19th Century propagandised the vision of family as a repository of stability and firm values, that a stable family was assum ed to achieve social harm ony and individual fulfilment in England, whereas in Sweden virtues of a stable life, and of a stable home life, were praised among the middle classes (Frykman and Lofgren, 1987). The emphasis here is on the stability of relations, perhaps, on the Christian ideas of fidelity and marriage. But it is implicit that stable relations are taken to go along w ith a stable home, people and place being immanent in the other, the stability of the home reflecting and guaranteeing that of the family. As a m atter of fact, as Marcus (1999) points out, the 19th Century English ideal of home subordinated the spatial implications of the home's status as a 'castle',^ to tem poral ones. It represented durability, the persistence of past mto present and timelessness; it protected against the passage of time. At the heart of such a conception of stability lies the association betw een place and stability, an association which is all the stronger w hen place construction is opposed to movement, as we have seen in the introduction, and that home
is a concept of place rather than space, implying emotional attachm ent and meaning beyond constraints of the physicality of any particular dwelling house (BirdweU-Pheasant and Lawrence-Zuniga, 1999, 6)
Home, in brief, has become a symbol of intimacy and privacy. It has become the expression of nurturing and security, some sort of shelter. It has become a
^ Marcus refers here to Edward Coke's quotation dating back to 1644: "For a man's house is
his castle, et domus sua cuique tutissim um refugium [and one's home is the safest refuge to
everyone]"(M arcus, 1999, 236).
familiar place, a stable place. Going further, I w ould say th at stability has become a condition of domesticity. The mythical ideal of stability goes along w ith the creation of the idea of home and is driven by the idea of home. It is enacted through the very notion of home. This ideal of stabüity is threatened by mobility, however. For moving can "shatter the calm of our family and make the sturdiest marriage start to fray".^ It can threaten the "vital balance"® and the "physical securing stability of home" which is "so im portant to individuals' psychological equilibrium".® If we were extending Hockey's (1999b) argum ent on the m utual constitution of the sense of self and home, we w ould say that m oving is to dweUing w hat the 'house of doom ' is to the ideal home: a threat to the self. For that reason, moving in itself has long been perceived as a threat. DeFoucauld (1990) reports th at Benjamin Franklin would have declared that "three movings equated one fire". The belief th at moving m ay be threatening, that it m ay stand among the m ost stressful events for hum an beings, following the death of a spouse, a divorce, ex aequo w ith a bombing, has also inspired a French director m a film on house moving.^ It is so strong a belief that it is taken to extend to plants and animals.® As such, Canada Posts advises their customers to "w atch the effects of the move on your family and pets so you can lend a helping hand and be reassuring".
Redbook M agazine, October 1980.
Millet et a l (1980, 212).
Duff and Cadette (1992, 207).
See L'entretien avec O livier Doran transmitted to the Montreal journalists in the scope of the
promotion of the film 'Le dém énagem ent' during the Summer 1998. It is possible that Doran
referred to The Social R eadjustm ent Rating Scale of Holmes and Rahe (1967) according to
w hich the life events w ith the highest magnitude of anxiety are the death of a spouse, a divorce, a marital s^ aration , etc. However, in H olm es and Rahe's scale, moving on ly came in 32nd position. See Hobson, Kamen, Szostek, Nethercut, Tiedmann and W ojnarowicz (1998) for an update of the scale.
Sm art M oves, the guide to make your next move easier, Canada Posts (1998). See also M cC all's,
March 1981; Prevention, September 1989; and Pets M agazine, Ju ly/A ugu st 1995. There is an
assumption here that w hat is true for humans is true for animals and t l^ g s . I do not w ant to dispute it here. I rather w ish to emphasise the extent of the threat of the m ove.