Home in the Islands: Housing and Social Change in the Pacific - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0824819349 ISBN 13: 9780824819347

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press, 1997

Synopsis

Ordinary houses have extraordinary stories to tell.

For more than a century, anthropologists have been recording these sagas in an attempt to uncover humanity's relationship with the common dwelling. Fundamental to the interaction of humans and housing is the way people shape their living spaces, even redefining their purposes and meanings; their houses, in turn, influence how people live their lives and perpetuate the cultural structures that produced a given form of shelter.

The stories draw attention to colonial and missionary agendas, local and global economies, environmental disasters, cultural identities, social connections, and family continuity, as well as personal choices. And, as the chapter on homeless Hawaiians shows, even those without houses have stories to tell.

Anthropologists, architects, environmental designers, geographers, and historians will welcome this diverse volume on a neglected yet important aspect of change in the lives of Pacific Islanders.

About this title

About the Author:

Margaret Rodman Critchlow is professor of anthropology at York University, Toronto.

Review:

"Represents an exciting new direction in the anthropology of contemporary Pacific societies."

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0824819349
• ISBN 13: 9780824819347
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240
• Editor: Rensel Jan, Rodman Critchlow Margaret