About the House: Lévi-Strauss and Beyond - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521479533 ISBN 13: 9780521479530

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1995

Synopsis

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' 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 analyze "house" systems in Southeast Asia and South America, exploring the interrelationships among 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.

About this title

Book Description:

Exploring interrelationships, this collection analyzes "house" systems in Southeast Asia and South America. It is inspired by Lévi-Strauss's suggestion that the multi-functional noble houses of Medieval Europe were the best-known examples of a widespread social institution.

About the Author:

Janet Carsten is Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. She is the author of "The Heat of the Hearth: The Process of Kinship in a Malay Fishing Community" (1997) and "After Kinship" (2004). She has co-edited "About the House: Levi-Strauss and Beyond" (1995) with Stephen Hugh-Jones, and edited "Cultures of Relatedness: New Approaches to the Study of Kinship" (2000). Her current research deals with new approaches to kinship in anthropology, adoption reunions, kinship and memory.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0521479533
• ISBN 13: 9780521479530
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 300
• Editor: Carsten Janet, Hugh-Jones Stephen