The empty chair beside the hearth: households, homemaking and community organization, 1780’s to 1960, Western Ireland
5:00pm - 7:00pm /
Wednesday 8th December 2021
- Dr Doug Baird
- Admission: This is a free event, please register via the Eventbrite link provided for zoom link details
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Professor Ian Kuijt , Department of Anthropology, University of Notre Dame (ikuijt@nd.edu)
Abstract: Henry Glassie argues that the fire hearth served as a location around which household and community relations were actively shaped and maintained in rural Ireland. Drawing upon archaeological excavation, archival research, historical documentation, and oral interviews, in this presentation I consider the material setting and spaces around the fire hearth, and the movement of people within and between spaces and buildings. Focusing on dynamic village organization on the now abandoned island of Inishark, Co. Galway, seven miles off the coast of Western Ireland, in this presentation I focus on interconnected aspects of 1780’s to 1920’s island households; the importance of inter-household reciprocity and labour, the role of inter-household residential mobility, the common interior organization of the house, and mantlepiece as a location of household memory and identity.
Abstract: Henry Glassie argues that the fire hearth served as a location around which household and community relations were actively shaped and maintained in rural Ireland. Drawing upon archaeological excavation, archival research, historical documentation, and oral interviews, in this presentation I consider the material setting and spaces around the fire hearth, and the movement of people within and between spaces and buildings. Focusing on dynamic village organization on the now abandoned island of Inishark, Co. Galway, seven miles off the coast of Western Ireland, in this presentation I focus on interconnected aspects of 1780’s to 1920’s island households; the importance of inter-household reciprocity and labour, the role of inter-household residential mobility, the common interior organization of the house, and mantlepiece as a location of household memory and identity.