Title: Everyday life : how the ordinary became extraordinary /
Authors: Amato, Joseph Anthony,
Year: 2016
Subjects: Anthropology; Culture; Civilization History; Anthropology; Civilization; Culture
Abstract: "In Everyday Life Joseph A. Amato offers a panoramic account of the evolution of our daily existence and reflects on the complex and changing textures of everyday life. Beginning with societies of scarcity and relative lack of change and ending with our own twenty-first-century lives, he ranges widely through topics as varied as dirt and muck, walking and the charm of spices, and through time from early agriculture to mechanization and the modern urban existence. Amato argues that what seems to be ordinary is in fact extraordinary, and shows how life, even in the very recent past, differed from life in our present-day societies of abundance and of remorseless change. The result is a challenging and thought-provoking introduction to change and continuity in daily life"--Publisher.
Contents: Introduction: writing daily and everyday life -- Bodies and things -- In a place at a time, with changing orders and rising spires -- Many times make many minds -- Of things and selves I sing -- The mechanizing of work and thought, and the acceleration of life and individuality -- Inventing our ways and designing our days -- Compounding minds -- Conclusion: the poet's field.