This paper defines the conditions for the appearance and development of domestic space studied by means of ethno-archaeology (considered an instrument which, by recognising and studying present day general mechanisms, makes it possible to interpret the past). After defining the term "domestic space" (the set of activities which are polarised around a fire is the essential component of "domestic space", the structure of which is the basis for the abstract notion of the "foyer" as equivalent to "family"), the author offers a series of models of this space starting with the "chimpanzee model" and terminating with the "model of homo sapiens sapiens".