Meredith Chesson, PhD

Professor, Department of Anthropology

University of Notre Dame

Abstract:

How do people assemble their homes as places that encompass their pasts, presents, and futures? To answer this question, this presentation considers Lash et al’s (2023) concept of ensemble practices to consider how crafting one’s home, whether that be a structure, settlement, landscape, or groups of people, offers opportunities to reflect on relational orders encompassing people, places, buildings, imagined and material communities, non-human entities, and time. I focus on western Irish dresser- and delph-keepers in Counties Galway and Mayo to consider how people use these belongings in homemaking practices to anchor themselves and their communities, bridging the past to the future and connecting to people and places both near and across the globe.