Mini lecture: The facilitator presents a mini lecture, highlighting the key aspects of the concept being discussed. This confirms and adds to the participants’ contributions. DEFINITION OF TERMS (Brainstorming, mini lecture and discussion) List of terms • Community healing »» Community »» Healing • Culture • Development • Leadership • Memory and memorialisation. Definitions Community healing ‘Community healing’ is a combination of two terms: ‘community’ and ‘healing’. In order to understand the term fully, the meaning of each term should be explored independently. Community The term ‘community’ can be defined in various ways, depending on the context in which it is being used. According to Boyce and Lysack (1997): There are two ancient roots to the English word community — the Latin communitas, meaning common; and the older Greek biocenosis, which is an ecological term meaning ‘a group of integrated and interdependent plants and animals’ (ecologically the survival of one enhances the survival of the other and vice-versa). Currently, the term community has two general meanings: The first refers to social ideals of solidarity (unity or agreement of feeling or action, especially among individuals with a common interest; mutual support within a group), sharing, and consensus (agreement). This is a relatively recent usage. The second meaning of community refers to actual groupings of people. This is the older and more common usage, but it is also idealist in many ways. Community groupings are defined usually through affinity or geography. Affinity groups share human characteristics of ethnicity, gender, age, disablement. Occasionally, affinity includes socially defined characteristics such as education, social class, and political affiliation, but this usage is less common. Crow and Allen (1995) view ‘community’ in territorial or geographic terms. A community, in this case, can be a village, town, country, etc., with defined physical boundaries. ‘Community’ may also be described in terms of interests or beliefs shared by a group of people. These could be religious beliefs, occupation and ethnic origin. In this way, one may speak of a ‘Christian community’, the ‘Kalanga community’, etc. However, these two variables of geography and affinity often overlap. In some instances, people who live in the same locality might have the same ethnic origins or occupation, for example in the case of mining towns or farming communities. Module 1: Understanding community healing 3 1