About the House: Lévi-Strauss and Beyond

Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 5/4/1995
EAN 9780521479530, ISBN10: 0521479533

Paperback, 316 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English

The domestic unit is inseparable from its homestead, and the 'house', at once a physical place and a social unit, is often also a unit of production and consumption, a cult group, and even a political faction. Inspired by Lévi-Strauss's suggestion that the multi-functional noble houses of medieval Europe were simply the best-known examples of a widespread social institution, the contributors to this collection analyse 'house' systems in Southeast Asia and South America, exploring the interrelationships between buildings, people, and ideas. They reveal some of the ways in which houses can stand for social groups and serve as images of process and order.

1. Introduction Janet Carsten and Stephen Hugh-Jones
2. Houses and hierarchies in island Southeast Asia Roxana Waterson
3. The resurrection of the house amongst the Zafimaniry of Madagascar Maurice Bloch
4. The hearth-group, the conjugal couple and the symbolism of the rice meal among the Kelabit of Sarawak Monica Janowski
5. Houses in Langkawi
stable structures or mobile homes? Janet Carsten
6. Having your house and eating it
houses and siblings in Ara, South Sulawesi Thomas Gibson
7. The Lio house
building, category, idea, value Signe Howell
8. Houses and hierarchy
the view from a South Moluccan society Susan McKinnon
9. Houses, places and people
community and continuity in Guiana Peter Riviere
10. The houses of Mebengokre (Kayapo) of Central Brazil
a new door to their social organization Vanessa Lea
11. Inside-out and back-to-front
the Maloca and the house in northwest Amazonia Stephen Hugh-Jones.