The Prehistory of Home

June 18, 2012
Using archaeological records and personal experience, anthropologist and archaeologist Moore (Architecture and Power in the Ancient Andes) crafts a study of the home that is equally scholarly and entertaining. First establishing a distinction between the shelters of animals and the homes of humans, Moore goes on in prose learned and lyrical ("e carefully scoop up the loosened midden and sieve it through dry shaker screens") to depart from the popular belief that sedentism resulted from a shift to agricultural societies; instead, Moore suggests that "Sedentism developed when people had too much stuff." Of course, homes mean more than increased storage: human shelters, designated by a richly diverse nomenclature (e.g., palace, kraal, billet, cabin, chalet, igloo, shanty, and condo), can be temporary, portable, and even act as metaphors for they societies in which they are found. Homes can delineate gender roles, establish class differences, protect their inhabitants from outsiders, and serve as manifestations of social fears and anxietiesâin his discussion of gated communities, Moore takes on Barbara Ehrenreich's assertion that "Hell is a Gated Community" by responding, "so is Heaven." Ranging from the epically historical (as in the preservation of Pompeii) to the immediate and close-to-home (as when Moore describes the fatal house fire of an eccentric neighbor), the author employs wit and plenty of research to offer up a wonderfully thought-provoking exploration of how our most intimate edifices are intertwined with human nature. Photos.