ABSTRACT
Everyday life with its unfailing routines is at once a set of banalities and a deep mystery. On the one hand, everything is known; in performing the tasks of everyday life people know what to do, where and when, without thinking. On the other hand, if one steps aside for a moment, and looks at the behaviors as they appear in scenes that unfold on the daily ‘stage’, one cannot help but wonder why and how. Why do people accept the unquestioned authority of what is to be done even though the ‘powers’ that demand their performance are unseen? How does it come about that the familiar is embraced as both inevitable and comforting?
