Research Articles
Conversations about Home, Community and Identity
Authors:
Theano Moussouri ,
UCL Institute of Archaeology, GB
Eleni Vomvyla
UCL Institute of Archaeology
Abstract
Despite an increased interest in how societies produce, present and interpret the
past, empirical studies of how people make sense of and use the past in their
everyday life are less common in public history. This paper explores how people
use material culture to make sense of their recent past by (re)constructing personal,
family and community histories both in museum exhibitions and through
everyday engagements at home. We use two case studies: The West Indian Front
Room – Memories and Impressions of Black British Homes exhibition at the Geffrye
Museum, London, and the homes of six families of Albanian heritage in Athens,
Greece. In both cases, objects play a key role in mediating and reflecting identity
and meaning-
making.
How to Cite:
Moussouri, T. and Vomvyla, E., 2015. Conversations about Home, Community and Identity. Archaeology International, 18, pp.97–112. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/ai.1810
