The term membership is one that refers to the action of belonging, being part of or being owned by someone. The verb to belong in itself means at the same time to integrate something or to be part of something as well as to be the possession of another, that is, to correspond to their orders or command. However, the term belonging is normally related to the first of the two meanings that have to do with the idea of feeling part of something, of some phenomenon or circumstance, of some group of people or of some space.
Membership appears generally related to the notion of origin and provenance. Both notions are what make a person (or even an animal) feel part of a group of peers according to their origin, the place or the group in which they were born. In this way, the feeling of belonging to a place, to a community is given from the daily coexistence in that space and from the sharing of meanings, symbols, traditions, actions and ways of thinking with all the other members. In the case of animals, the feeling of belonging is limited to the herd to which it belongs. The animal that is abandoned or despised by its pack is undoubtedly an animal that loses part of its being.
In the case of the human being, obviously, the notion of belonging becomes much more complex and goes beyond the sense of instinct. The human being is the one who creates his own social group and all the social, cultural and physical phenomena that take place in it are what unite all its members and make them feel part of that whole, but not of another group.
Belonging is especially linked today to the idea of nation since this is the clearest representative of a social group with which one can share the territory, the political system, the history, the language, the traditions and the different forms. To feel.
