essay
The home "place": center and periphery in Irish house and family systems
house life: space, place and family in europe • Oxford • Published In 1999 • Pages: 105-129
By: Birdwell-Pheasant, Donna.
Abstract
In this study of rural Ireland house systems, the author claims that land was not the ruling symbol in the Irish mentality; rather it was family and place, as shown in an examination of ancient legal tracts. Documents from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries from one region in County Kerry reveal a diversity of house and settlement types. Under English law the loss of security in customary land tenure shifted the nexus of identity away from land and towards the family, leading to land fragmentation and "ephemeral" housing, and undermining the balance between population and resources, with disastrous consequences during the Great Famine. Additionally, the author provides a comparison between the types and quality of housing in the post-famine and modern periods.
- HRAF PubDate
- 2016
- Region
- Europe
- Sub Region
- British Isles
- Document Type
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Ethnographer
- Document Rating
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- Analyst
- Ian Skoggard; 2014
- Field Date
- 1986
- Coverage Date
- 1700-1990
- Coverage Place
- Ballyduff area, County Kerry, Munster, Ireland
- Notes
- Donna Birdwell-Pheasant
- Includes bibliographical references(p. 126-129)
- LCCN
- 99220597
- LCSH
- Ireland--Rural conditions