essay

The home "place": center and periphery in Irish house and family systems

house life: space, place and family in europeOxford • 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.
Subjects
Tillage
Dwellings
Settlement patterns
Real property
Inheritance
Status, role, and prestige
Household
Extended families
culture
Rural Irish
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