Living spaces : Social construction of habitat: the anthropological and social-historical origins of the house and home from the point of view of its fundamental and continuing significance to civilization

Résumé du document

What could possibly be the common features amongst Inuit Igloos, Native American tepees and Swiss chalets? At face value, there is not much of a similarity as they belong to three very unique cultures. Nevertheless in this situation, it is relevant enough to draw a comparison amongst all these different dwellings. This will be the focus of this essay. Undoubtedly, the truth remains that a distinction has to be made between the many and often very dissimilar human habitations that have been created and instituted until recently. However, one needs to remember that the process of building dwellings or habitation is an interesting process. The characteristic and distinct features of all settled human societies and civilizations is a representation of the meaning of being human itself. Human dwellings are different, however they would continue to share the same origin in the human need for shelter. As a result, to understand the similarity in all human dwellings and habitations, it is a crucial factor to validate and understand the origin of the ?house'.

Extraits

[...] That is why, from its origin, the home has directly contributed to establish the norms of society and, thereby, to define civilization throughout history. Bibliography Architectural Anthropology, The Present Relevance of the Primitive in Architecture, Nold Egenter, Research Series, Structura Mundi, Lausanne 1992 (mainly pps 96 and 177) At Home, An Anthropology of Domestic Space, Edited by Irene Cieraad, Syracuse University Press, New York 1999 (mainly chapters 4 and Colin COBUILD Dictionary on CD-ROM Encarta Encyclopaedia 2007, French Edition, articles called “Habitat humain” and Aries, P (1962) “From the Medieval to the Modern Family” in Centuries of Childhood New York; Vintage Bence-Jones, Mark (1987) happiest country I ever knew” in Twilight of the Ascendancy, London; Constable Davis, Mike, “Fortress Los Angeles: the militarization of urban space” from City of Quartz “Imprisonment in Castle Rackrent”, K. [...]

[...] Castle Rackrent portrays the Irish country life of the 19th century, which resulted in the confinement of women in the home and led them to be sometimes imprisoned in a single room. As for Aries, he depicts the phenomenon of apprenticeship in the 16th and 17th century Europe. It led children to leave their family at the age of to be “civilized” in other households, where they were socialized and learnt how to work. Such rules determine the orientations in society. [...]

[...] The Philosophy of Furniture Schama, S. (1991) “Housewives and hussies: homeliness and worldliness”, in The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age, London; Fontana Simmel, G. on the naming of houses in sociology of space” pps 149- 150; on the sociology of the meal, and on sociability, from in Frisby, D. and Featherstone, (eds) Simmel on Culture, London, Sage (1997) Weber, M. (1978) Household, neighbourhood and kin group” and Household, Enterprise and Oikos”, in Economy and Society vol.1. pps 356-384. [...]

[...] A civilization is human society with its own social organization and culture”, but it is also state of having an advanced level of social organization and a comfortable way of life.” So, to an extent, civilisation is compatible with the idea of progress and, more importantly, both are linked to the house as an architectural and cultural structure, and to the home as a fundamental societal organization. In other words, it is closely related to the two kinds of origin of houses, namely the cultural origin and the societal origin. Nevertheless, even though it is possible to distinguish two distinct sorts of origins of the house and the home, this dichotomy cannot sort out the plan of our reasoning. Actually, cultural and societal aspects of human dwellings are closely related to each other. [...]

[...] But houses have also a subjective or social significance that goes far beyond their material aspect. Simmel conveys this idea when he deals with the naming of houses in The sociology of space. Indeed, this phenomenon illustrates the subjective way in which people may consider their houses. So now, let's go into the details of the origin of the house, in order to see their influence on civilization and society. What is striking when we compare primitive houses from any continent is that they are always circular and they always have boundaries. [...]