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Literary notes about migratory (AI summary)

The term "migratory" is deployed in literature to convey a wide range of ideas from literal movement to metaphorical shifts in identity and culture. In sociological and anthropological texts, as seen in Burgess and Park’s work, it contrasts the stability of civilization with the inherent restlessness in human nature, implying that modern progress binds people more tightly to their soil while some remain naturally inclined toward roaming [1, 2, 3]. In the natural sciences and animal studies, this adjective highlights instinctual behaviors, whether referring to the directional variability of innate drives in species like birds and ants [4, 5, 6] or the predictable travel patterns of fauna [7]. Additionally, historical travel narratives extend the concept to describe lifestyles and cultural migrations, noting differences among various peoples, such as the Turkmans, Kurds, and even contrasting Germanic, Latin, and Slav communities [8, 9]. Other texts use the term to delineate fixed versus mobile lifestyles, thereby illustrating the compelling tension between rootedness and the impulse to wander [10, 11, 12].
  1. Every advance in civilization multiplies and tightens the bonds uniting him with his soil, makes him a sedentary instead of a migratory being.
    — from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park
  2. Doubtless the great majority of these men are temperamentally predisposed to the unanchored, adventurous, migratory existence which they lead.
    — from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park
  3. The German is more migratory than the Latin, the Slav than the German.
    — from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park
  4. A swallow, impelled by migratory instincts to leave a nest full of unfledged young, would endure a moral conflict.
    — from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana
  5. I can only assert that instincts certainly do vary—for instance, the migratory instinct, both in extent and direction, and in its total loss.
    — from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin
  6. I thought one day, at Villa Nova, that I had come upon a migratory horde of this indefatigable ant.
    — from Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
  7. This elm and the surrounding grove are still favourite stations or resting-places for our migratory birds.
    — from Toronto of Old by Henry Scadding
  8. The migratory and pastoral Turkmans still exist in this region, but the Kurds of like habits have taken their place to a large extent.
    — from The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Marco Polo and da Pisa Rusticiano
  9. Perhaps there is something in the highly developed migratory instinct of Indo-European peoples.
    — from A History of Norwegian Immigration to the United States by George T. Flom
  10. "The Migratory Impulse versus Love of Home," American Journal of Psychology , X (1898-99), 1-81.
    — from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park
  11. Their most marked peculiarity is the migratory nature of their lives.
    — from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park
  12. They are not of a migratory nature, but have their fixed habitations, and are fond of elegance and luxury.
    — from Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China (Siam), Cambodia, and Laos (Vol. 1 of 2) by Henri Mouhot

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