The end of bamboo houses in northern Laos

Bibliographic Data

ID2260095
AuthorsR Stolz (0000-0003-4509-076X, Freie Universität Berlin, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume125
Issue3
Pages611-622
Publication date2023-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Anthropologist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7294 • E-ISSN: 1548-1433
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/aman.13877
OpenAlexW4380986223
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited42

While we know much about the beginnings of houses, we rarely know about their endings. Yet, to understand the temporality of houses and the entanglement of the biographies of houses and their residents, the analysis of their endings is particularly relevant. The case of Khmu houses is especially suggestive here, for it shows that the end of a house is not an exceptional phenomenon, nor a symptom of crisis, but an inevitable and intended part of its life cycle. Unintended ends, on the other hand, may continue to be animated. While bamboo houses can be assumed to have reached their end due to the widespread use of timber and, increasingly, of concrete. However, bamboo as a building material still appears convenient for fulfilling certain ends, which means that it may resurface even in novel ways

Aesthetics · Art · Bamboo · Epistemology · Phenomenon · Sociology · Temporality · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Ecology · History · Philosophy · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

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