One Man's Thirteen Abodes
Keywords:
home, dwelling, abode, dwelling biography, home historyAbstract
As specialists in research of material culture, Finnish ethnologists have diligently examined buildings, houses and dwellings as well as their furnishings. They have focused on building techniques, floor plans, the age and types of houses and dwellings and their distribution. (Cf. Valonen 1963; Sammallahti 1980; Sappinen 1985; Mäntylä 1989; Korhonen 1991.) Originally the main interest was on the rural way of living but since the 1960s urban and working class housing has also been studied (e.g. Nurmi 1985; Aukia & Virtanen 1993; Virtanen 1984). Although researchers have paid attention to the various activities in and around dwellings they have mostly neglcected the inhabitants' relationships with their abodes and the meanings connected with them. ln the 21st century, however, a few ethnologists and also historians have begun to address homes and their meanings for the inhabitants (e.g., Sarantola-Weiss 2003, 2009; Tuomi-Nikula 2007; Tuomi-Nikula et al. 2004; Åstöm 2007, 2009, 2010).
