“Feeling at Home”
Ordinary objects in our homes can be studied as an expression of deep cultural categories familial relations of descent and marriage, forms of social distinction and the construction of social identities. We can also see in them the commitment and devotion to “sacred” values and “ultimate themes,” in the sense that these terms assume in Thomas Luckmann’s theory of “invisible religion.” This article proposes to merge this theory with the “new material culture studies,” analyzing the “singularization” (Igor Kopytoff) or “densification” (Annette Weiner) of ordinary objects of mass culture. In particular, we discuss some results of an ethnographic research carried out in the homes of middle class and families in some cities of Tuscany. In particular, our analysis focuses on “objects of affection” or “personal relics,” on “memory archives” and on the various ways in which photographs are present in the domestic environment.