House, fire, gender

In this article I examine the Samburu house (pastoralists, northern Kenya) and its fire as the sacred locus of right moral practices—as feminine objects consecrated through proper use. I begin by way of counter-example, however, describing the moral entailments of a particular event, a woman's...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Straight, Bilinda 1964- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Taylor & Francis [2007]
In: Material religion
Year: 2007, Volume: 3, Issue: 1, Pages: 48-61
Further subjects:B Material Culture
B Samburu (African people)
B Religion
B House
B Gender
B Kenya
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Description
Summary:In this article I examine the Samburu house (pastoralists, northern Kenya) and its fire as the sacred locus of right moral practices—as feminine objects consecrated through proper use. I begin by way of counter-example, however, describing the moral entailments of a particular event, a woman's house that caught fire in contentious circumstances. Following this elucidation of houses made sacred or desecrated through use, I will conclude with a discussion of the Samburu house in relation to Samburu understandings of "modernity." Here, I will point out the re-gendering of the Samburu house in the wake of an intriguing trend—the accelerating proliferation of the "modern" house that has frequently become a man's house in a society for which the house has long been a quintessentially feminine space.
ISSN:1751-8342
Contains:Enthalten in: Material religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.2752/174322007780095645