Domestic buildings: understanding houses and society

King, Christopher

Abstract

This chapter argues that understanding consumption must involve contextualising objects; the built environment has often been treated as a passive backdrop or container for new goods in the early modern world, rather than a socially, economically and politically active participant in a material culture conceived as a totality. Houses were transformed in the early modern period as increasing division and specialisation of space in parlours and chambers, kitchens and service areas articulated relationships within and between household members and advertised social status through division. The domestic was being defined as a distinct cultural field but it remained a contested sphere, always subject to close observation and moral regulation by the wider community.

Citation

King, C. (2016). Domestic buildings: understanding houses and society. The Routledge handbook of material culture in Early Modern Europe (111-125). London: Routledge

• Online Publication Date: Sep 16, 2016
• Publication Date: Sep 16, 2016
• Deposit Date: Jul 27, 2016
• Pages: 111-125
• Book Title: The Routledge handbook of material culture in Early Modern Europe
• Chapter Number: 7
• ISBN: 9781409462699
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1115357
• Related Public URLs: https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-Material-Culture-in-Early-Modern-Europe/Richardson-Hamling-Gaimster/p/book/9781409462699