Abstract
Taking as a starting point the comparative project between the Caribbean and Brazil, as originally envisaged by Louis Herns Marcelin (1996), the article is articulated around two axes of reflection. First, I seek to establish a dialogue between this author's work and some central issues in ethnographies about Haiti and the Caribbean, such as conjugality and matrifocality. I show how Marcelin's work on kinship and domesticity among the families of the so-called “popular classes” of the Recôncavo Baiano is innovative: not only because it places the house at the center of his analyses, but also because it elaborates the notion of “house configurations”, paying attention to their relational dimension, as well as to those who inhabit them. I then draw attention to a series of paths that the the author's thesis allow us to explore beyond the home: themes related to blood, violence, and people's mobility. Finally, the text registers my current and specific interest in the relationships between houses (in their broadest sense, which includes the places where one lives or from where one originates) and people, as well as the role of blood as a carrier and transmitter of kinship and moral attributes.
Keywords:
Marcelin; Haiti; Houses; Kinship