| Abstract: |
An amalgam of work by archaeologists, architects, social theorists, and psychologists exploring architecture as a medium for representing, ordering and classifying the world. Eleven papers, including international examples, begin with `Ordering the world: perceptions of architecture, space and time' by Mike Parker Pearson & Colin Richards (1-37) considering the sectioning of space, meaning and activity in a variety of dwelling places. `Architecture and order: spatial representation and archaeology' by Mike Parker Pearson & Colin Richards (38-72) includes analysis of Neolithic Orcadian houses, the roundhouse in later British prehistory, the origins and evolution of architecture, conceptions of time, their relation to belief systems and the effect on architectural orientation. `Architecture and meaning : the example of Neolithic houses and tombs' by Ian Hodder (73-86) conceives of the tomb as a home which objectifies the relationships between those most closely connected to the domestic unit of production. `Defining domestic space in the Bronze Age of southern Britain' by John C Barrett (87-97) observes a shift in architectural focus from the funerary to the domestic. Papers on women in the greek household and the spatiality of Roman domestic settings are followed by one on Swahili material. `Ordering houses, creating narratives' by Matthew H Johnson (170-7) takes the Suffolk town of Brent Eleigh as an example to explore ways in which order is created through architecture, adaptation and use of that architecture and written discourse. `Spatial order and psychiatric disorder' by Annie E A Bartlett (178-95) explores how the spatial segregation of those considered mad reflects contemporaneous conceptions of insanity. Finally, there is a paper on how hunter-gatherers manage social ordering without architecture, using international examples. |
