Dressing and Undressing the House

Abstract

Based on anthropological fieldwork with a museum collection, this article discusses the changing nature of the rural household in central Romania. Through a detailed examination of the interiors it provides an understanding of the local perspectives on the traditional households. Tracing the historical process of undressing and remaking this space, the article highlights the shifting local attitudes towards domesticity and different sentiments towards the house represented by source communities and museum professionals. It aims to illuminate the contrasting time-spaces in which rural households are embedded and to provide a context for rethinking this material in the museum setting.

Valued Objects Dynamics and Adaptability of Domestic Workspaces

“…According to the literature written by Hand et al (2007), when there is a change in an object because it is influenced by the development of object technology and how humans accumulate these objects, this can affect adaptation to space. Then when the space undergoes changes, which according to Buchczyk (2016), due to the development of material technology and culture, this affects the adaptation to objects in the space, one of which is by eliminating previously accumulated objects. These changes then affect the need for new spaces, space configurations, and how humans perform routines in space.…”

“…This is often done through personalizing walls with their valued objects that have qualities related to emotional/self-identity. Buchczyk (2016) discusses such self-identity in traditional houses in the village of Viștea, where the traditional cloth is used to display women's skills at home by placing them on mattresses, tables, and walls. With the arrangement of their valued objects, they can show the symbol of domesticity and the skills of Viștea women in the complexity of design, pattern making, to the richness of color from traditional fabrics to the public.…”