Paper short abstract:

Through a phenomenological analysis of the domestic architecture of a 19th-century estancia (cattle ranch) in South Brazil, this paper explores the links and juxtapositions of archaeology and anthropology in material culture studies.

Paper long abstract:

Through a phenomenological analysis of the domestic architecture of a 19th-century estancia (cattle ranch) in South Brazil, this paper explores the links and juxtapositions of archaeology and anthropology in material culture studies. Integrating these two disciplines, phenomenology provides an anthropological account of archaeological remains by means of sensorial experience and ethnographic research, connecting past and present through a tool that we all share - the body. Integrating concepts and methodologies from archaeology and anthropology, phenomenology suggests that the bodily experience among the material remains of past societies is the way through which participant observation is exercised. Therefore being there and exploring the architecture of the place through the body provides a possibility of assessing social identities, since the bodily interaction with the materiality in the present can suggest how the social rules objectified in the architectural forms were embodied by people in the past. Rather than situating phenomenology within either anthropological or archaeological studies, this paper discuss how both disciplines are intertwined in the phenomenological approach to space, place and architecture.