House life : space, place, and family in Europe

This book, which fills a gap on the materiality of lived relations, examines households within the context of their immediate physical surroundings of home and shows how human interactions are reflected in built forms. Houses are dynamic participants in family life in many ways. They often pre-date the origins and outlast the life spans of their inhabitants, but they can exert a powerful influence on the organization of behaviors and the values of family members, as well as on the forms and flows of family life across the generations. Constituting wealth, investment, security and inheritance, they are an objective in and of themselves in many domestic strategies. Drawing on developments within anthropology, archaeology, architecture and social history, the authors demonstrate, through detailed case studies, how household or family relations can usefully be mined to re-situate social theory in both space and time. Space, boundaries, family cycles, historic changes, migration patterns, ethnicity, memory and gender are all interrogated for the light they shed on how people interact with the physical world around them and what this means culturally and symbolically. Europe is an especially rich focus for this kind of analysis because it is distinguished by its long, well-documented history and a recent period of intense change. “This book, which fills a gap on the materiality of lived relations, examines households within the context of their immediate physical surroundings of home and shows how human interactions are reflected in built forms.” Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Contents 8 Notes on Contributors 10 Preface 14 1 Introduction: Houses and Families in Europe 16 Part I: House, Family and the Construction of History 52 2 The Casa of José dos Santos Caldas: Family and Household in a Northwestern Portuguese Village, 1850-1993 54 3 Fleeting Villages, Moving Households: Greek Housing Strategies in Historical Perspective 88 4 The Home "Place": Center and Periphery in Irish House and Family Systems 120 Part II: Houses and the Construction of Family Life 146 5 Reconstructing Sexual Geography: Gender and Space in Changing Sicilian Settlements 148 6 Suburbanizing Rural Lifestyles Through House Form in Southern Portugal 172 7 Living Spaces in Transition: From Rural to Urban Family Life in Serbia 192 8 Use of House and Space: Public and Private Family Interaction on Chios, Greece 220 Part III: House and Symbol - The Power of Constructions 236 9 Re-entering the West Room: On the Power of Domestic Spaces 238 10 The Memory House: Time and Place in Jewish Immigrant Culture in France 254 Author Index 266 Subject Index 272 Fleeting,Villages;,Rural,Lifestyles;,Power,ofDomestic,Spaces;,Time,and,Place Fleeting Villages,Rural Lifestyles,Power ofDomestic Spaces,Time and Place Introduction : Houses And Families In Europe / Donna Birdwell-pheasant And Denise Lawrence-zúñiga -- The Casa Of José Dos Santos Caldas : Family And Household In A Northwestern Portuguese Village, 1850-1993 / Caroline B. Brettell -- Fleeting Villages, Moving Households : Greek Housing Strategies In Historical Perspective / Susan Buck Sutton -- The Home 'place' : Center And Periphery In Irish House And Family Systems / Donna Birdwell-pheasant -- Reconstructing Sexual Geography : Gender And Space In Changing Sicilian Settlements / Sally S. Booth -- Suburbanizing Rural Lifestyles Through House Form In Southern Portugal / Denise Lawrence-zúñiga -- Living Spaces In Transition : From Rural To Urban Family Life In Serbia / Judith A. Rasson, Mirjana Stevanović, And Vladimir Ilić -- Use Of House And Space : Public And Private Family Interaction On Chios, Greece / Alice V. James And Loukas Kalisperis -- Re-entering The West Room : On The Power Of Domestic Spaces / Lawrence J. Taylor -- The Memory House : Time And Place In Jewish Immigrant Culture In France / Joëlle Bahloul. Edited By Donna Birdwell-pheasant And Denise Lawrence-zúñiga. Began As A Panel For The 1992 Meeting Of The American Anthropological Association--p. Xiii. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes. Introduction : houses and families in Europe / Donna Birdwell-Pheasant and Denise Lawrence-Zúñiga Part I. House, family, and the construction of history The Casa of José dos Santos Caldas : family and household in a northwestern Portuguese village, 1850-1993 / Caroline B. Brettell Fleeting villages, moving households : Greek housing strategies in historical perspective / Susan Buck Sutton The home 'place' : center and periphery in Irish house and family systems / Donna Birdwell-Pheasant Part II. Houses and the construction of family life Reconstructing sexual geography : gender and space in changing Sicilian settlements / Sally S. Booth Suburbanizing rural lifestyles through house form in southern Portugal / Denise Lawrence-Zúñiga Living spaces in transition : from rural to urban family life in Serbia / Judith A. Rasson, Mirjana Stevanović, and Vladimir Ilić Use of house and space : public and private family interaction on Chios, Greece / Alice V. James and Loukas Kalisperis Part III. House and symbol : the power of constructions Re-entering the west room : on the power of domestic spaces / Lawrence J. Taylor The memory house : time and place in Jewish immigrant culture in France / Joëlle Bahloul. "This book, which fills a gap in the materiality of lived relations, examines households within the context of their immediate physical surroundings of home and shows how human interactions are reflected in built forms. Houses are dynamic participants in family life in many ways. They often pre-date the origins and outlast the life spans of their inhabitants, but they can exert a powerful influence on the organization of behaviours and the values of family members, as well as on the forms and flows of family life across the generations. Constituting wealth, investment, security and inheritance, they are an objective in and of themselves in many domestic strategies." "Drawing on developments within anthropology, archaeology, architecture and social history, the authors demonstrate, through detailed case studies, how household or family relations can usefully be mined to re-situate social theory in both space and time."--BOOK JACKET