Domesticities

As we suggested in our discussion of domus, theoretical articulations of domesticities have a long history. The dominant frameworks of twentieth-century human geography, however, often elided its importance. In Marxism, for example, domesticities are conceptualized in terms of the sphere of social reproduction in which labor power is reproduced and workers are fed, rested, clothed, and housed - a sphere which is, as elaborated by socialist feminists, tied to the sphere of production (Mackenzie and Damaris 1983). Domesticities in these frameworks are defined through, and practiced in, the private sphere, which, in turn, is separated from the public spheres of work and politics. With the "cultural turn" across the humanities and social sciences and the infiltration of postcolonial, poststructural, and feminist frameworks through cultural geography, conceptualizations of domesticities have broadened. Here, we elaborate on three key theoretical frameworks that conceptualize domesticity - feminism, postcolonialism, and material culture studies - and develop the concept of domestication as a unifying thread.