مسکن و محیط روستا (Dec 2018)

A comparative Study of Sistani and Baloch Rural Native Habitations in Terms of the Skeletal Recognition : A Cultural Anthropology Approach

  • Nima Valibeig,
  • Sahar Rastegar Zhaleh

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 37, no. 163
pp. 19 – 32

Abstract

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Sistan and Balochestan province has a variety of native habitation architecture that can be categorized. Factors such as economy, livelihood, context, climate, materials, and construction technology are influential in the appearance of social and cultural patterns in traditional architecture., Yet this article has compared the skeletal recognition of the existing architectural styles, their similarities and differences from a cultural anthropology perspective and has considered the role of culture as an effective component in general formation of the houses, their spatial hierarchy, accesses and so on.Culture as a factor is playing a striking role in habitations and the structure of the spatial compartmentalization. Hence, a comparative study method is used to present a solution for analysing the quality and similarities of native habitations of Sistani and Baloch from the cultural anthropology perspective. It has been less than three decades that this approach is used in architectural studies of culture-oriented researchers such as Christopher Alexander, Amos Rapoport and Paul Olivier. The role of this approach in architecture is to provide an understanding of the interrelationship between architecture and its constitutive cultural paradigms, the lifestyle and utopian thoughts of a nation. Cultural anthropology provides a background in architectural studies due to the capabilities hidden in its core, which makes it suitable to elicit the fundamental factors underlying the formation of an architectural tract. If we consider the culture as an intermediate ring of recognition and social structures (i.e. religion, livelihood, social cast, etc.), thus cultural anthropology would lead us to look into the social structures and the specific lifestyle of the society in search for a reason or a chain of fundamental reasons that result in the formation of architecture in a specific region. Present research is aiming at analyzing how and why these differences and similarities appear, using this approach. The analysis of differences and similarities in cultural fields of two ethnic groups of Sistani and Baloch helps us define the properties of indigenous habitations in Sistan and Balochestan province. This paper is based on a survey on cultural categories in this province and a field study. Based on this data, this article identifies differences and similarities of native habitations in the area. For this purpose, several indigenous habitations of historic rural areas of this province has been studied such as Potan, Pashamag and Frooz Abad villages of Sistan and the villages of Qaleh-no, Se Koohe and Dashtak of Balochestan area. It can be argued that culture produces an impressive effect on the formation of habitats, organizing relations and spatial layouts. The role of culture becomes even bolder in the case of rural native habitation of Sistani and Baloch because this area has been stayed untouched, locating far away from the center of changes. This research has surveyed the effectiveness of culture on arithmetical and geometrical aspects, tiny spaces, the spatial relations and access for comparison of causes which are forming specific habitation patterns in these two regions in Sistan and Balochstan area.

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