Paper Short Abstract:

This presentation explores how it is possible to perceive and conceptualize the passing of time within the household. Specifically, it posits that just as the notion of the household is synonymous with the idea of family, the temporality of the household is delineated by generations.

Paper Abstract:

The household constitutes a central space in social life (Buchli et al., 2004; Cieraad, 2006), serving as the backdrop for a significant portion of individuals' lives. Furthermore, it is within the confines of the household that fundamental principles are reproduced and socialized, forming the basis through which individuals comprehend and engage with the surrounding world (Bourdieu, 1972, 2007; Carsten, 1995, 2004; De Pina Cabral, 2019). Materialities comprising the domestic space, such as spaces, objects, and images, play a pivotal role in this process, functioning as both agents and indicators of these world configurations (Miller, 2001). Consequently, an analysis of household transformations, encompassing both discourses and materialities, can unveil how individuals and social groups experience and enact socio-historical processes from the most intimate perspective.

An approach grounded in diachrony confronts us with the perennial anthropological question regarding the temporality of social life, which does not align with absolute temporal systems (Munn, 2008). This presentation explores, through an ethnographic fieldwork conducted in working-class homes in Valparaíso and Santiago, how it is possible to perceive and conceptualize the passing of time within the household. Specifically, it posits that just as the notion of the household is synonymous with the idea of family (Muñoz Ebensperger, 2020), the temporality of the household is delineated by generations. The dwellings associated with different generations reveal differences and similarities that articulate profound changes in everyday life and in the ways individuals understand and relate to their surroundings.