Chapter 4 - Being At Home Flashcards
Welling
How one ‘wells’, I.e., how one understands his/hers surroundings.
Appropriation
Cultural appropriation is the adoption or use of elements of one culture by members of another culture.
- How people make things meaningful for themselves
- How people appropriate products by attaching personal meaning to them
- Idea of appropriation is very evident in the home. Appropriate objects in surroundings, and how people construct their home.
- E.g. moving in to uni room. Put meaning into it by adding photos etc. Adding meaning to domestic surroundings.
- How these ideas between the inside/outside /clean/unclean – how technology becomes accepted
Grant McCracken
He noticed thatwhat Americans described as ‘homeliness’ they attached to the feeling of comfort, cosiness and the aesthetic of the home.
- Attach personal and collective meanings and narratives to things. E.g. memory wall. Makes you feel at home.
- He noticed the difference of this in different cultural context. E.g. Soft materials and sofas make people feel at home inside the home.
- Warm colours and pictures of loved ones created homeliness.
- Public Vs Private e.g. The use of a hedgerow.
- The division between the inside and the outside varies between cultures.
- The aesthetic may not be pretty to others but it is individualistic.
• Americans spend an enormous amount of effort and money creating homeyness, using wreaths on the door, mantle arrangements, hand-crocheted placemats and the ‘‘memory wall’’ of family photos. Dr. McCracken said it stands for the family as corporation through shared activities.
OBJECTS ARE USED TO DISPLAY MEANINGS ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS AND ACHIEVEMENTS (e.g. memory wall)
• Homeyness is, for many people, ‘‘the adhesive that attaches them to self, family, time and place,’’ Dr. McCracken said. ‘‘The room becomes a stage set for family roles, acting as a prompter from which family members take their cues,’’ he said. ‘‘Without settings and props, there is no family or self.’’
- COSY - the idea of cosy is enacted the organisation of furniture and space to create “success rings of intimacy”
Mary Douglas
- How practices of tidying and cleaning are not just about ‘dirt’ but are, as the anthropologist Mary Douglas suggested, about making social order in the world.
- Her views on dirt help to highlight the difference between the inside and the outside which is mostly down to culture and gender.
• People organize their houses according to what is dirty and not dirty
“Tidy room, tidy mind”
Technology
Technology is culturally appropriated but also helped us understand how technology in the house is gendered.
It is important to remember that ‘culture, not technology, makes people feel at home’.
The home
- The home is like an active side of consumption
- Behavior is different inside homes than outside homes, this can affect consumption. How do people live inside their homes.
- The home is an important side of consumption
- Aspirations play important part in consumption
- E.g. Body Shop – using aspirations to promote their brands
Hi-tech toilet, Japan
- Good ways to explore how understandings of dirt are different in different cultures.
- Cleans itself, washes you.
- Explore why this technology became accepted in Japan and not as much elsewhere. Became accepted in Japan because it reconciled distinction between inside/outside clean/unclean. Culturally attuned to Japanese understandings of cleanliness.
Main key points:
- The home, the ‘domestic’ realm is an important site for culture. Producers and companies can better understand what people think of clean/unclean etc.
- Culture, not technology, makes people ‘at home’.
- Technology is culturally appropriated.
- Divisions between outside/inside, clean/dirty, culturally/technology
Material culture:
The study of things as an important dimension of culture
The Home:
How people use things in their home, how cultural ideas of the home and how it is made are different in different places.
Ideas of home evoke…
strong emotions:
- privacy
- intimacy
- person
They also create boundaries (public vs private)
The way they are decorated make statements about the occupants. Self-presentation.
People invest a lot into their homes because…
“homes provide the context through which people can be themselves, making oneself at home is an essential aspect of consulting the self as a “social actor”
Daniels - Japanese Homes Inside Out.
The idea of contrast between outside and aside is again important here.
Houses are strongly associated with family intimacy and the inside. Social activities normally take place outside.
He argues intensely private connotations of Japanese houses is in fact related to older architectural forms. e.g. high walls and fences contribute to be important in separating houses from the outside world. Also small winders and use frosted glass if street facing.
When people enter a home the boundaries inside and outside are performed through activities such as removing shoes and keeping them on a shoe rack in hallway.
People also change clothes when they are home.
Garvey, Domestic Boundaries, Privacy, Visibility and the Norwegian Window
- Like Americans, Norweigns associate coziness with ‘being at home’
- This is an idea performed through its visibility.
- They do not close curtains or draw blind but place lamps in the window to ‘convey coziness’ and conform to a cultural norm.
- Home is more about women and family sociality.
Dirt and Order
Keeping the house clean and tidy is another way to create ‘privacy’ and a ‘homey environment’
