Anthropology of Houses: Reflections from Existing Literature on Architecture

Abstract

The architecture of houses ever built can broadly be divided into two main divisions: one, polite or modern architecture and another, vernacular architecture. The former ti;pe is built by textually trained architects and the later type is built by the inhabitants themselves through learning the craftmanship from their own experiences. Researches on architecture have been initiated and mostly done by architects and architectural historians. But these researches mainly focussed on the polite architecture. Anthropologists, to some extent, have researched on vernacular architecture but not as much as they have given importance to the study of kinship, religion, societi;, and culture of particular group of people. Reflecting on the existing literature, this paper attempts to illuminate on the nature of architectural research so far conducted by anthropologists and also opportunities for further research.