Memory recollection and oral history: a study of vernacular architecture transformation of the past

Abstract

In many rural areas, historical records are limited to analyzing the transformation of vernacular architecture. An alternate resource that this paper will use is memory recollection. This paper will examine one house owned by a Bajo informant and one owned by a person identified as Manggarai in and around Labuan Bajo, Indonesia. The desk study, observation, and interviews collected elements of their built environment classified in transformation theory. Then the findings and interactions with the informants are analyzed to see the ideal memory system best applied to these methodologies. Through this research, we were fortunate to collaborate with two memory systems of two different ethnic groups, with which the method resulted in detail. Furthermore, with the findings from this research, it is hoped that more studies of rural vernacular architecture in places with limited historical records can be conducted through memory recollection before the decrease of communities owning these memories.

Keywords

• vernacular architecture
• memory recollection
• oral tradition
• oral history
• ethnicity