About the House

Download or read book About the House written by Janet Carsten and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 'house' is at once a physical place and a social unit, and is often also a unit of production and consumption, a cult group, and even a political faction. Inspired by Levi-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.