Home Possessions: Material Culture Behind Closed Doors

by Daniel Miller (Editor)

Although so much of the life we care about takes place at home, this private space often remains behind closed doors and is notoriously difficult for researchers to infiltrate. We may think it is just up to us to decorate, transform and construct our homes, but in this book we discover a new form of ‘estate agency', the active participation of the home and its material culture in the construction of our lives. What do the possessions people choose to take with them when moving say about who they are, and should we emphasize the mobility of a move or the stability of what movers take with them? How is the home an active partner in developing relationships? Why are our homes sometimes haunted by 'ghosts'?. This intriguing book is a rare behind-the-scenes exposé of the domestic sphere across a range of cultures. Examples come from working class housewives in Norway, a tribal society in Taiwan, a museum in London, tenants in Canada and students from Greece, to produce a genuinely comparative perspective based in every case on sustained fieldwork. So Japan, long thought to be a nation that idealizes uncluttered simplicity, is shown behind closed doors to harbour illicit pockets of disorganization, while the warmth inside Romanian apartments is used to expel the presence of the state. Representing a vital development in the study of material culture, this book clearly shows that we may think we possess our homes, but our homes are more likely to possess us.

Genres: Material Culture, Nonfiction, Anthropology

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Daniel Miller is Professor of Anthropology at UCL, author/editor of 37 books including Tales from Facebook, Digital Anthropology (Ed. with H. Horst), The Internet: an Ethnographic Approach (with D. Slater), Webcam (with J. Sinanan), The Comfort of Things, A Theory of Shopping, and Stuff.

Reviews

[celia · Rating 3 out of 5]

me ha acompañado durante mucho rato así que tiene un huequito en mi cora, pero hay artículos mejores y otros peores, como todo

como tengo que escribir un trabajo de 10 págs ahora sobre esto creo que paso de escribir una reseña decente !!

[Brahunja · Rating 2 out of 5]

Letto il: 21/05/2026
Lingua: Italiano

Commento:
La raccolta di biografie è interessante, ma avverto parecchio giudizio da parte degli antropologi che hanno compilato il libro. Mi sarebbe piaciuto anche sapere secondo quali criteri l'autore ha selezionato questi dodici racconti tra il centinaio che ha collezionato. Le conclusioni finali mi sono parse un po' deboli e non particolarmente pertinenti al tema del rapporto tra le persone e gli oggetti di cui si circondano.

[Leonardo Rosi VanManen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uno dei saggi di antropologia più illuminanti che io abbia mai letto.
Dodici racconti di vita riportati con una narrazione/descrizione romanzesca e allo stesso tempo impegnata nell' esporre insight psicologica ed etnografica del rapporto tra le persone e le loro possessioni materiali che in gergo universale chiamiamo "cose" che effettivamente "parlano di noi".

L' analisi di Miller sui residenti di Stuart Street, una strada di Londra, é un' introspettiva ricerca dello stretto, fondamentale ed eterno fenomeno basato sul fondersi di società e materialità e potrebbe essere sintetizzato dalla seguente frase:

Questa strada è la Nuova Guinea e ogni unità abitativa in questo libro è una tribù.

Questa interessante opera accademica, inusuale, con la sua struggente capacità evocativa e la sua scorrevolezza, è senza ombra di dubbio una lettura doverosa per neofiti e veterani in egual modo delle magnifiche scienze sociali e umane.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daniel Miller already said what I have to say. He inspires me because, with his tenured and highly published status in tow, he is publicly ackowledged for his ideas, whereas I am still something of a young-looking, short, grad student crackpot. Objects matter (and yes, that's a double entendre)? The public/private dichotomy is neither truly valid nor an indication of Westernization? Right-o, Danny boy, and would you please sponsor me in my pilgrimage toward aesthetehood? P.S. This entire book is a collection of Miller's best doctoral students' dissertation chapters, which makes him, in my mind, a studly mentor. Also, though, that's why it only garnered four of my precious stars: some of the essays are a bit underdeveloped. Still, they're published and I'm (academically speaking) not. P.P.S. I wish there were a cool plural form of "dissertation" like theses is to thesis.

[Maria Popescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve only read “A man will get furnished”. I’m meant to read another chapter for uni - I love material culture! - but I was pleasantly surprised to find a chapter about my home country in this book so I just had to.

[Federico · Rating 3 out of 5]

7½

[g]

interessant

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 hours in the library

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un bel saggio, interessante. Forse avevo aspettative diverse, mi immaginavo un approccio più scientifico, ma comunque ho apprezzato questo scritto, sicuramente adatto ad un pubblico più ampio.