Understandings of Household Architecture at Night in the Middle Chamelecón Drainage, Honduras

Summary

Interpretations of Mesoamerican households tend to focus on activities that might rightly be associated with daylight hours and mostly informed by material culture that is moveable and multipurpose. However, intensive examinations of the non-movable or architectural composition of household settings have recently revealed even more about these diverse and socially complex domestic spaces. This examination initiates an analysis of the interaction between humans and their built-environment as it pertains to shifts in use and meaning of household settings from day to night within the Middle Chamelecón region of NW Honduras. In particular, building designs and uses of interior and exterior spaces are examined for their similarities and variations within and between different sized households. The importance of private and public spaces, socializing and utilitarian spaces, and the architectural adaptation of these over time will be explored as their practical and communal significance transitions once daylight fades. Adding the element of natural changes of illumination to what have mostly been interpretations of daytime household activity, further highlights the complexity of these social spheres of daily life and the challenges of interpreting the entanglement of the sacred and secular, as well as the mundane and extraordinary practices they comprised.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Night and Darkness in Precolulmbian Mexico and Central America   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16690