Remembering the House

Memory and Materiality in Northern Botswana

Bibliographic Data

ID2390896
AuthorsChristopher Morton (0000-0002-3358-591X, University of Oxford, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume12
Issue2
Pages157-179
Publication date2007-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Material Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1359-1835 • E-ISSN: 1460-3586
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1359183507078123
OpenAlexW2004798839
LanguageEN
Citations received21
References cited26

Although both anthropology and archaeology have long been interested in the relationship between the built environment and social forms, relatively little attention has been paid to the way in which the material home is implicated in processes of memory. Drawing on case studies from fieldwork in northern Botswana, this article argues that memory, or more especially processes of remembering, is importantly related to the spatial and temporal fluidity of the Tswana home and its inherent divisibility. The article argues that understandings of the house as a container for memory or biography have not sufficiently understood the way in which the materiality of the house, as well as its spatial configurations over time, are involved with the way in which such memories are formed and articulated. It also suggests that, in its connectedness to memory and community, building activity is an important material basis for cultural understandings of relatedness

Aesthetics · Art · Materiality (auditing · Social connectedness · Sociology · Temporalities · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology