Anthropology and Architecture

Unit-II
Kinship:

In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important

part of the lives of most humans in most societies, although its exact meanings
even within this discipline are often debated.

Kinship can refer both to the patterns of social relationships themselves, or it can
refer to the study of the patterns of social relationships in one or more human
cultures

Kinship can also refer to a principle by which individuals or groups of individuals

are organized into social groups, roles, categories and genealogy by means
of kinship terminologies.

Family relations can be represented concretely (mother, brother, grandfather) or

abstractly by degrees of relationship (kinship distance).

A relationship may be relative (e.g. a father in relation to a child) or reflect an

absolute (e.g. the difference between a mother and a childless woman).

Degrees of relationship are not identical to heirship or legal succession. Many

codes of ethics consider the bond of kinship as creating obligations between the
related persons stronger than those between strangers, as in Confucian filial
piety.
House society:

In anthropology, a house society is a society where kinship and

political relations are organized around membership in corporately-
organized dwellings rather than around descent groups or lineages,
as in the "House of Windsor".

The House society is a hybrid, transitional form between kin-based

and class-based social orders, and is not one of Lévi-Strauss'
'elementary structures' of kinship.

Lévi-Strauss introduced the concept as an alternative to 'corporate

kinship group' among the cognatic kinship groups of the Pacific
region.
The socially significant groupings within these societies have
variable membership because kinship is reckoned bilaterally
(through both father's and mother's kin) and come together for only
short periods.
Property, genealogy and residence are not the basis for the group's
existence.
House societies and kinship

Lévi-Strauss' most succinct definition of a House was that it is "a corporate body holding
an estate made up of both material and immaterial wealth, which perpetuates itself
through the transmission of its name, its goods and its titles down a real or imaginary
line considered legitimate as long as this continuity can express itself in the language of
kinship or of affinity and, most often, of both.

Three elements :
1. The House is a corporate body ("moral person") holding an estate made up of both
material and immaterial goods..

2. As a "moral person", it is an alternate metaphor replacing "blood" in defining the social

identity of the group. As a symbol of the group, the House persists over generations and
links the group to its sacred origins.

3. The House persists over time by transmitting its titles through conditional kinship
principles: "patrilineal descent and matrilineal descent, filiation and residence,
hypergamy and hypogamy, close marriage and distant marriage, heredity and election

All these notions which usually allow anthropologists to distinguish the various known
types of society, are united in the house, as if, in the last analysis the spirit (in the
eighteenth-century sense) of this institution expressed an effort to transcend, in all
spheres of collective life, theoretically incompatible principles.
Perception of Built Form (Colonial/Modern and Indigenous)

When western Colonial people came to Southeast Asia,

they found most of the vernacular and primitive building are
inhuman because they were dirty, dark, unhealthy. They consider:

•Dark because of not sufficient opening,

•Unhealthy because of having no too much smokes from the hearth, and too many
people living in house
•Dirty because it mixes human and domesticated animal activities

But for the people:

•Dark because it need special construction and they are not necessarily need it
because their main activity is outside. They came into house when they sleep
•Full of smokes, because house is for ritual that attribute hearth. Smoke visualize
spirits, and spirits is believed to be able to heal many kinds of disease
•Family is more important than comfort, comfort is in family-hood
•Animal life is inseparable to human because they are
necessary and meaningful for life
Major changes happened, and altered some framework on seeing house:
•Primitive Architecture to Vernacular Architecture: when the primitive architecture was
advanced to accommodate more functions and equipped with higher state of
structure, and more meaning

•Pre-Colonial architecture to Colonized Architecture: when the vernacular architecture

assimilate with more technical and functional necessity brought by the colonist

•Pre-Modern Architecture to Modern Architectures: when the vernacular architecture is

altered by Modern Architecture
Case Study of traditional Architecture in India
Courtyards: Influence of the Indian Traditional Architectural Element on Community
Interactions

“The courtyard house is traditionally called Haveli in North India, Wada in

Maharasthra, Rajbari in West Bengal, Deori in Hyderabad, Cathurmukham in Tamil
Nadu, and Nalukettu in Kerala

Courtyard in Rajasthan
The layout of Indian courtyard house
“Nadumuttom” – The traditional interior courtyard
Case Study of traditional Architecture in Africa

Mali, also in West Africa, has entire cities made of mud, some more intricate than
others. Sun-dried mud has been used to build mosques, archways, and homes, a
technique that’s been passed down from generation to generation since the 14th
century.
Case Study of traditional Architecture in Africa

In Djenne, Mali, mud mosques like this one have been around since the 14th
century.
Case Study of traditional Architecture in Africa

On the southern coast of Benin in West Africa, for example, there’s an entire city built
on stilts. From churches to banks to even hospitals, the tradition of building bamboo
huts above the ocean dates back hundreds of years.

A traditional house built on stilts in Benin, Africa.

 Grass huts in Niger

The Dassanech tribe in

Ethiopia build their houses
in such a way that despite
having only one entrance,
they are well ventilated.
 This home in Swaziland is
constructed with wooden poles.
The walls are filled with rocks,
which will then be plastered over
with mud.

The Dassanech tribe in

Ethiopia build their houses
in such a way that despite
having only one entrance,
An example of a thatched roof on a
they are well ventilated.
building in Malawi.
Case Study of traditional Architecture in Asia - China
Forbidden City – Main palace in
the centre with the huge gate,
and the side structures
maintaining the symmetry.

Chinese architecture emphasizes

on articulation and bilateral
symmetry, which signifies
balance.

Secondary elements are

positioned either side of main
structures to maintain overall
symmetry.

In contrast to the buildings,

Chinese gardens are an
exception which tends to be
asymmetrical.

The principle underlying the

garden's composition is to create
enduring flow.
 Case Study of traditional Architecture in Asia - China

Si-he-yuan house - The name literally means a courtyard surrounded by buildings .

Buildings or building complexes in china take up an entire property but encloses open
spaces within itself. These enclosed spaces come in two forms: the open courtyard and
the "sky well“.
The use of open courtyards is a common feature in many types of Chinese
architectures.
These enclosures serve in temperature regulation and in ventilation.
Courtyards are open and facing the south to allow the maximum exposure of the
building to the sun while keeping the cold northern winds out.
 Case Study of traditional Architecture in Asia - China
Chinese traditional architectural craftsmanship for timber-framed structures

Standing as distinctive symbols of Chinese architectural culture, timber-framed

structures are found throughout the country. The wooden components such as the
columns, beams, purlins, lintel and bracket sets are connected by tenon joints in a
flexible, earthquake-resistant way.
Case Study of traditional Architecture in Asia - Bali
Traditional architecture in Bali originates
from two sources.
One is the great Hindu tradition brought to
Bali from India via Java.
The second is an indigenous architecture
pre-dating the Hindu epic and in many
ways reminiscent of Polynesian building.

Bali Temples
 Bamboo Architecture in Bali

In Bali, Bamboo Architecture Offers Model for a Sustainable Future

Bamboo is a flexible and tensile material with the strength equivalent to steel. It account
for the flexibility in the engineering process and work to ensure bamboo maintains its
integrity over time. Bamboo is plentiful in river valleys throughout Asia, and the clumps
regenerate each year. Bamboo is ready for use as a building material at age 3-5 years.”
 Traditional Balinese houses are built
Traditional Architecture in Bali
almost entirely of organic materials.They
use natural materials such as thatch
roofing, bamboo poles, woven bamboo,
coconut wood, teak wood, brick and stone
The thatched roof usually
uses ijuk (black aren fibers), dried coconu
or rumbia leaves, or sirap (hard wood
shingles arranged like tiles) roof.Stones
and red bricks are usually used as
foundation and walls,
while sandstone and andesite stone are
usually carved as ornamentation.

Pura Ulun Danu Bratan in harmony with Bratan

lake environment.

A Balé pavilion within Balinese house

compound.
Case Study of traditional Architecture in Asia - Thailand

The Thai wat is a group of buildings

each serving various purposes and set
within a walled enclosure.

Temple of Reclining Buddha, Wat Pho,

Bangkok, Thailand
Case Study of traditional Architecture in Asia - Thailand

Traditional Thai house style

Northen rice barn

Case Study of traditional Architecture in Asia - Myanmar

Ancient Buddhist temples in Bagan, Myanmar