anthropology of habitat and architecture

16 Compiling Records

Architecture, as it is produced today in our urbanisedenvironments, is based on restricted knowledge of itsevolution. Postmodern ‘theory of architecture’determined by conventional history of art with itslimited concept of aesthetic values prevents scientificresearch and reasoning. The wider human condition isnot integrated. Man appears only marginally as a userand is represented by standardised functional needs.Consequently, architectural anthropology maintainsthat theoretical horizons have to be widened. The termarchitecture is defined in new ways by integrating itinto anthropological dimensions, includingprimatological and paleanthropologicalconsiderations. Seen thus, the term ‘architecture’implies all that humans and their biological relativesbuilt and build.

In the 20th century, there was considerable interestregarding the achievements of traditional ‘architecturewithout architects’ as proposed by Bernard Rudofskyin1965. While many architects became activelyinvolved in this direction of research, a world-widemovement emerged with numerous internationalassociations focussing on the study of traditionalenvironments. The most important result of theseefforts can be seen in the Encyclopaedia ofVernacular Architecture of the World’ (1997) editedby Paul Oliver. Theoretically however, theencyclopedia’s methodology is based on thedisciplinary anthropology of the house without beingconscious of the euro-centric origins of these

Anthropology ofHabitat andArchitectureNOLD EGENTER Schematic representation of construction

methods of chimpanzee nests (Izawa/ Itani1966)

Typical positions of chimpanzees in nest(Goodall 1962)

Chimpanzee female starts building a nest ontop of a palm tree (Goodall 1962)

Compiling Records 17

interpretations. Many characteristics of housetraditions can not be explained in this framework.

The Viennese school of ethnology, and in particularKarl R. Wernhart (1981), has developed a new methodcalled ‘Structural History’ or ‘Ethno-Pre-History’which can be used for questioning the historicismseparating the three temporally different disciplines inregard to material culture. Did fibrous materials andfibroconstructive processes play an important role inprehistory? Was the evolution of culture closelyrelated to objects which were not durable? Were suchobjects representative for systems of ontologicallyhigh values? Such questions can be taken as a goodreason to hypothetically introduce a new period intothe periodic system of prehistory: [prelithic]fibroconstructive industries.

Architectural anthropology is closely related to OttoF. Bollnow’s anthropology of space. In his book Manand Space (1963), Bollnow maintained that, incontrast to the homogeneous concept of universalspace, essentially a discovery of the 14th century,cultural, or human space, is closely related to theevolution of human dwelling and settlement. Thisimplies first, that human space perception and spaceconception originally were formed in small, localsettlement units, in which architecture provided thesemantic systems for spatial organisation. Second, wehave to assume a long extension process of spatialperception and conception. In addition tectonicelements imply vertical and horizontal axial systems(e.g. ‘access-place scheme’ or ‘vertical polarityscheme’). In the framework of a new ‘habitatanthropology’ we gain new and objective instrumentsfor the reconstruction of basic spatio-cultural patternswith often surprising continuities.

These prerequisites allow a new view on theanthropologically defined concept of architecture. Itworks with five classes: subhuman, semantic,domestic, sedentary and urban/imperial architecture.These five classes are relatively independent fields ofresearch. Combined with the results of conventionalphysical and cultural anthropology they can be takenas a new field of stimulating discussions. This shall beoutlined in the following.

SUBHUMAN ARCHITECTURESUBHUMAN ARCHITECTURESUBHUMAN ARCHITECTURESUBHUMAN ARCHITECTURESUBHUMAN ARCHITECTURE

In their book ‘The Great Apes’ (1929) the Americanprimatologist couple Robert W. and Ada W. Yerkes forthe first time had systemtically collected and studied

observations focussed on the nest building behaviourof the pongids. They considered nest building as adaily practised constructive behaviour whichproduced definitive alterations of the naturalconditions of the environment. They therefore,postulated pongid nest building as the beginning ofan ‘evolution of constructivity’.

If, on the other hand, the suggestion of the Yerkes istaken seriously and the protocultural artefactcharacter of the nest is emphasised, nest buildingbehaviour is much more convincing as protoculturalactivity that is intimately connected to the life of thepongids. Infants spend about four years in the nest oftheir mother until they can build their own nest. Nestbuilding is learned. The young play with nests. The

Young Orangutan building his nest on a betel-palmtree(Galdikas-Brindamour/ Brindamour 1975)


completed nest produces an identification of theproducer with his artefact. The nest is also used incase of sickness and imminent death.

Nest building is daily routine. Quantitatively too,nests are overwhelming. During its life an individualbuilds a virtual tower about eleven height of 11 timesthe height of the Eiffel tower. Construction impliesspecific physical conditions characteristic of humans:extensive rotation of the arms, a precise grip andstereoscopic view while controlling constructiveprocesses. It requests judgement of constructiveconditions, static quality etc. One can even speak ofthe psychology of the nest: several observers notedanimals expressing safety and comfort when in theirnests.

Night camps are an eminently social arrangement.Further, the night camp of a group shows a strategicorganisation with a secured inside and a controlledoutside, which is spatially not very different from theprinciples of a human apartment.

Most important is the differentiation of tree andground nests. Whether tree or ground nests are builtdepends on various factors. Weight and age of theindividuals are important as are environmentalconditions which play a decisive role. Tree nests gaintheir stability from the structural condition of the treetop in which they are built. Ground nests are usuallymade with rooted plant materials which act as natural

foundations for instance, in bamboo stalks. On aheight of three to four meters the stalks are bent,broken and knotted into stable triangles thus forminga perfectly stable type of tower. On its top the nestproper is made with thin, thoroughly interwoven twigsto form a smooth upholstery. Finally, the often heavyanimals climb up, position themselves with their bodyinto the central depression of the nest and spend thenight sleeping.

Evidently the ground nest is a fully fledged work ofarchitecture. But the ground nest is not only aprimordial type of architecture.

If, the routine nest building is put into the foreground,the use of early tools as cutters for fibrous materialsmight have produced the ‘first architecturalrevolution’. It was mentioned above that the buildingof the pongid ground nest is bound to thecorresponding biotope (rooted materials).Consequently tools of the pebble tool type must havefreed constructive work from this fixation to biotopicconditions. Materials could now be ‘harvested’ wherethey grew and could be carried to the ‘constructionsite’ where they could be combined with othermaterials. Material combinations of constructionscould be extended. Stable and flexible materials couldbe integrated at the same place into the construction.A process of structural differentiation is initiatedwhich might have led to an elementary material cultureof the fibrous or fibroconstructive type.

Plan of six gorilla nests in mountain woodcharacterized according toconstructive types and users (Kawai/Mizuhara 1959)

Mother and child relation regardingnest: 4 stages (Kawai/ Mizuhara 1954)

Same arrangement in perspective (Bamboo-wood is cutoff for better vision; N. Egenter 1992)


SEMANTIC ARCHITECTURESEMANTIC ARCHITECTURESEMANTIC ARCHITECTURESEMANTIC ARCHITECTURESEMANTIC ARCHITECTURE

In their important ethnological study on traditionaltechnology, Walter Hirschberg and Alfred Janatashowed, that fibroconstructive industries are the mainpart of the material culture of traditional societies.They also play an important role in the building ofdwellings. Tools are rarely used as the hand is theprimary tool.

An example: the material culture of the Ainu as it ispresented by Shigeru Kayano (1978) with precisetechnical drawings of 250 such tools, is of greatimportance here. A large part of the material culture ofthe Ainu reflects their palaeo-siberian roots - simplyconstructed traps, nets, cages, fish traps, baskets andbags for transport, boats, weapons, tools for variouspurposes. Toys for children and status symbols arealso present as are small temporary hunting huts.These objects can easily be retro-projected intoMesolithic times, may be even into the Upper andMiddle Palaeolithic. It seems that material culture wasmuch richer than the image projected byarchaeological studies.

Further, the Ainu have an extraordinary topo-semanticsign system, their ‘inau’. John Batchelor, who wasconsidered an authority on the Ainu, described thesesigns under the Euro-centric concept of ‘primitivereligion’. However, earlier, Willy Kremp (1928) haddiscovered the territorial implications of the Ainusigns within the framework of a systematic survey.They are primarily related to dwelling, but in a largersense they are also used to control economical‘incomes’. The altar behind the Ainu house functionsas a co-ordination point for gift exchange for all thatcomes in from the wilderness to the house through

Geometry of the form - Note that Plato consideredgeometry of divine origin

Geometry is produced by a specific technology- a bundleof stalks will always be round, cylindric

Philosophy: forms are differentiated following theirfunction as territorial representation, but they have acommon structure and show categorical polarity. Thisprinciple of ‘polar analogy’ shown in this scheme is veryimportant for the anthropology of cognition

Vertical and horizontal sections of two basic hutlike andcolumn- type forms in the same village (Ueda). At right isthe female variation of the male column type


Fibroconstructive ‘semanticarchitecture’ surveyed in 100 villagesof Central Japan. Locally they areconsidered as the ‘seat’ of the villageprotective deity (ujigami). Suchtoposemantic and stucturo-symbolicmarkers are still widespread in Japan. Itis possible that before the introductionof wooden temple and shrine

architecture, these were the markers ofsacred places in agrarian villages of Japan.In the framework of architectural theory,these signs must be considered as an age-old laboratory of architectural form,symbolism and toposemantic functions.Note the primordial rooted form.Column and hutlike forms differ in basicdiameter only.


hunting, fishing, collecting and gardening. HitoshiWatanabe (1973) has described the river system withmountain and ocean oriented contrasts and its role asan orientation system in the local cosmos. EmikoOhnuki-Tierney (1972) too has contributed importantdata towards an understanding of theseenvironmental orders controlled by signs, but sheinterpreted the Ainu microcosm macro-cosmologically,following Mircea Eliade’s Euro-theological concept.

Japanese agrarian culture also contains numerousindicators of autonomous local cultures with

fibroconstructive industries. With the title ‘Straw’(wara), Kiyoshi Miyazaki (1985) has described therural straw culture of Japan in a beautiful two-volumestudy including coats, bags, shoes and other practicalthings, but objects of ontologically high value that arerelated to the world view of Japanese farmers. Thisfibroconstructive culture is without doubt moreancient than what we know of from the Yayoi period ofJapanese object culture. Without doubt, it was carriedalong as a vital tradition by the early agrarian settlers.The autonomy of the tradition might have beenhelpful for local integration.

Philosophy: In the sense of objective science, it is impossible todescribe these objects. They are technical and natural at the sametime, clearly defined and ambiguous, compact and loose, static andmobile, one and many etc.. This is not a matter of lacking precision,it is their essence. We call this essence categorical polarity

Theory of art: The term ‘proportion’ shows a newempirical dimension. A naturally mobile part (PRO)protrudes over a technically static part (portion).Evidently, this is a primordial type of what is calledproportion in the abstract geometrical or mathematicalsense.

Symbolic function: The object has no fixedidentity. Carried during the rite, the topo-semantic high pillar type changes into the mobileform of a fire spitting dragon or a boat

Philosophy:Territorially the forms are considered as units, but philosophically they areconsidered irrational, aesthetic forms which show the harmonious balance of twocontradicting parts united by a third element, the (sacred) rope. As such they are models ofcategorical polarity and were evidently of great importance in the evolution of culture.

Symbolic function: The column type isconsidered male, its variation isfemale.The variation is not physical butrelated to traditional hair style, upwardsand hanging down

Forms vary from village tovillage to emphasise theirterritorially representativefunction


However, most surprising in Japan are the traditionsthat have been preserved in the framework oftraditional village Shinto - a fibroconstructive topo-semantic system which has traditionally until todaysurvived in a surprising density. The elementarytechnological characteristics appear in combinationwith highest ontological values (sacrality). The signsare considered deities or temporary seats of localgods and are completely integrated into historicalShinto. In the framework of architecturalanthropology, the tradition can be considered as anarchive of local village history. In the framework of thecyclic renewal of cults, the signs document the earlyresidence of ancient families or of the settlementfounder line represented by one or several houses.Since these houses express a moderate hegemony inthe villages, the cult also supports the political andsocial structure of the settlement. The fibrous nuclearborder demarcation set up on the occasion of thesettlement foundation is renewed.

In the case of Japan we become aware that suchfibrous topo-semantic demarcations must have beenan important structural characteristic of prehistoricagrarian settlements. Guenther Kapfhammer’s book onalpine traditions of Central Europe (1977) discussesthe presence of such demarcations as maypoles andthe like within European folklore. They also appear inmany traditional cultures as ’fetishes’ and ‘idols’, i.e.in the framework of the so called ‘lower mythology’ ofhistory as defined by Sir James George Frazer andWilliam Manhardt. In the discipline of Archaeologythey are known as life-treesand they appear inmany forms throughout the Bronze Age. It islikely that many of the rock-art ‘tectiformes’ hadsimilar functions. Semantic architecture can thusbe taken as an universal architectural type of pre-domestic significance. Semantic architecture wastherefore probably the experimental field ofarchitectural form and corresponding symbolicmeanings.

Settlement Core Complex: the marker set up by thevillage founder as a ‘nuclear border’ in the ‘centre’ of the(planned) settlement is cyclically renewed in theframework of a local event of ontologically high values.The marker functions as an archive of village history andlocal constitution defining the founder line as chief, headpriest and local ruler. This structural model allows newinterpretations of state formation in continuity with‘predynastic’ agrarian village cultures.

Semantic architecture as a place-marker in a system ofspatial organisation. The column type shows an interactivefront (knot) and a ‘transcendental’ back part. The humanaccess path stops in front, defining a ‘face’ with spatiallyequivalent sides. Vertically it sets up an axial systemstructured according to polar categories, the upper partbeing empty and mobile, the lower part compact,massiveand technically emphasised (12 ropes for the 12 months,1 sacred rope for the year)


A study the Ainu house in the context of its constructionrites and annual cults focussed in various parts of thehouse at the agrarian level too, reveals the traditional housedefined in highly complex ways by toposemanticarchitectural elements. Here too, the house is not at allplanned according to functional principles. In all itsessential aspects it is definitely an expression of thecategorically polar organisation of space derived fromsemantic architecture which appears during specificfestivals related to the house.

Conventionally traditional huts and houses were considered‘primitive’ simple, and hence not worth of studying. This isentirely fallacious, especially, if local cults with toposemantic signsare included. They reveal highly complex systems ofappropriation of the environment and creation of local identity.Together with the adaption of needs to local conditions, theyprovide an incredible degree of autonomy, a value that has beenneglected in conventional studies. This illustration showsvariations of Ainu huts and house-types

A house of the Ainu, particularly at the occasion of their mostimportant bear festival, as well as the whole valley in regard to itscomplex condition are both organised harmoniously according tocategorically polar principles. The sacred signs of the Ainutradition (inau) act as models of this philosophy


Here meaning is expressed with the most elementaryforms and is produced autonomously by theconstructive process, without any preconceived ideaof the producer. The expression can be characterisedas ‘categorical polarity’ or ‘coincidence of opposites’.In the tradition of the 100 villages researched by theauthor (1994) it is clearly shown that the primarygeometrical form, essentially column or hut type,followed a trend of local differentiation and enters intodialogue with natural forms via the ‘coincidence ofopposites’ imbedded in the same form as a ‘generalprinciple’. The convergence of artefact and naturalform is created through the categorical polarity of thetopo-semantic system, respectively through the ‘polaranalogy’ of both forms. The artificial forms remaindominantly characterised by structural conditions,technique and geometry.

Landscape too seems to be structured according tothis principle of polarity. Time can be perceived inpolar relations (night/day, sun/moon) and similarly

elementary social hierarchy (man/woman, noble/commoner). The dialogue between semanticarchitecture and natural form can be used for thecultural perception of nature in the form ofcategorically polar analogies. Very likely polarity, as acognitive system, has produced an elementaryaesthetic revolution which can still be observed inmany traditional societies. And, in fact, its structuresurvives in many aspects of modern perceptions.

DOMESTIC ARCHITECTUREDOMESTIC ARCHITECTUREDOMESTIC ARCHITECTUREDOMESTIC ARCHITECTUREDOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE

By assuming a primary topo-semantic stratum in thearchitectural evolution outlined in the previoussection, we gain new indicators for the developmentof domestic architecture. The so called ‘sheltertheory’, that is, the assumption that man inventedprotective roofs or windbreaks against excessiveclimatic influences, reveals a functionalretroprojection. If huts and houses are interpreted ascomposite developments, we discover basicarchitectural schemes such as the ‘access placescheme’ in which semantic architecture defines theelementary plan with ‘place and gate markers’ intandem with other elements derived from semanticarchitecture. House altars and house gods serve asplace markers while sacred door posts as gate markers.Traditional house plans are often extremelyconservative inspite of changing materials and flexibleouter form of the houses. The ontologically high

The Ainu house and the harmonious structure of environment inthe framework of the Ainu world-view (Egenter 1991)

In many cases, theprimordial spatialorganisation of the villagecan be seen at suchfestivals. The access path,that is, the ‘mainstreet’ ofthe village forms its mainstructural element. Theshrine and its precursor,the fibrous prototype, actsas a central and border-marker thus defining theterritory of the village


This type of defining space is widespread across the globeand highly continuous, particularly in the domain ofsacred space. Here an example from India may be added, aChaitya hall focussed on its place marker with an accessdefined by gate markers

Perspective of a typical Japanese farming villageat the festival of the village protector deity(ujigami). The fibroconstructive marker(semantic architecture) is built with reed andbamboo in front of the wooden shrine. The cultassociation of elderly men moves towards theshrine at the edge of the rice fields in the woods.Originally when there was no wooden shrineyet, the fibrous marker remained there for oneyear until it was destroyed and then renewed.Today it is built in one day and destroyed byfire, usually on the same or the next day. Thefibroconstructive type thus represents theprecursor of the wooden shrine

Gates found in the shrine precinct define a ritual spacerelated to the shrine. Often, the same gates are found atthe village entrance secluding it from the outside worldand focussing its surfaces on the ontologically highestpoint, the place marker of the shrine and the temporarysacred sign


ranking demarcations appear fixed by cyclic cults,which were originally focussed on their renewal. Thefire in the open hearth reveals as an independentconstruction, which entered the house or the hutwhile preserving its own ontological autonomy.Similarly the roof can be derived as independentdevelopment of hut-like signs. This program wasessentially derived from two traditions studied indepth - various house types of the Ainu and thefarmhouses of Japan. Both house traditions and theirvariation, are not developed according to functionalprinciples. Both correspond to accumulations ofrelatively independent elements derived from a pre-domestic topo-semantic layer, which defined livingspace with cyclically renewed topo-semanticdemarcations. This creates a central and importantrequisite for the research of houses - related cultsmust be included into research.

SEDENTSEDENTSEDENTSEDENTSEDENTARY ARCHITECTUREARY ARCHITECTUREARY ARCHITECTUREARY ARCHITECTUREARY ARCHITECTURE

In the following we will shortly discuss an importantinsight of the approach - the evolution of territorialcontrol and sedentary life. The Mesolithic erawitnessed the evolution of a cultural dimension, whichcan be understood from its developed form, butcannot be reconstructed archaeologically with itsfactual conditions. Here too the ethno-pre-historicalmethod shows a new potential to better understandthe phenomenon of the increasing capacity forterritorial control and, finally, of permanent sedentarityfrom its institutional conditions.

The Mesolithic is characterised by increasinglysedentary communities and by the capacity to collecta broad spectrum of food. While, the conditions of thenew level are not clear, comparison with theethnological situation clearly shows the importance oftopo-semantic systems. In the case of the Ainu it isevident, that broad spectrum food gathering iscontrolled by a fibroconstructive topo-semanticsystem. In the framework of a categorically polarsystem the topo-semantic signs relate the antitheticcategories of inside and outside. Thefibroconstructive signs form the threshold points ofgift exchange between man and wilderness. Rooted inthe intimate space of dwelling, they extend into widerzones of hunting and collecting within the valley thatconstitutes the home range of the Ainu. A complexsystem of categorical polarity also controls time,social role and communal cooperation. In short, thecomparison with the ethnological situation gives usvery clear ideas about the structural conditions and

ontological principles according to which extendedterritorial control systems could have evolved.

The Neolithic is characterised by permanent agrariansettlements and domestication. More or lesspermanent occupation of a territory became importantwith pastoralism and agriculture. However, thequestion of how settlements were institutionallyorganised remains open. Architectural anthropologyassumes that topo-semantic demarcation systemswere already present already in the Mesolithic periodand became dominant in Neolithic times. They provedhighly efficient in the protection of sedentary life andconsequently, produced high ontological valuesamong local populations. The terms ‘nuclear border’and ‘settlement core complex’ are crucial in thisregard. Nuclear border demarcations were set up inthe middle of settlements. The fibrous demarcationremains within the controlled zone of the settlement.The categorically polar structure of ‘semanticarchitecture’ is projected spatially towards theoutside, producing village plans with complementarysurfaces, functional and non-functional domains.First, this must have been effective within regionalsettlement systems. It also developed a system ofontological values which further protected thesettlement. Polarity had become an establishedontological value related to the signs. They were usedas models of harmonious organisation of space, timeand social organisation. This also implied a primarytype of aesthetics, which provided value to thesettlement as a whole. The cyclic renewal of the samefibroconstructive demarcations introduced temporaldepth into the settlement’s consciousness. Further, anelementary social hierarchy developed within agrarianvillages. Through cyclic cultic renewal thedemarcation system remained related to thefoundation of the settlement, an aspect which islocally shown in the founder house line. The founderhouse develops hegemonic claims. Its representantappears with dominant functions in renewal cults. Heis priest and chief or ruler of the settlement. Thus, thetopo-semantic system had the function of a traditionallocal constitution. Semantic architecture can be takenas a scriptless archive of settlement history which wasprobably a basic institution of Neolithic villagecultures.

URBAN AND IMPERIALURBAN AND IMPERIALURBAN AND IMPERIALURBAN AND IMPERIALURBAN AND IMPERIALARCHITECTUREARCHITECTUREARCHITECTUREARCHITECTUREARCHITECTURE

The formation of early civilisations in the Bronze Ageis the field where architectural anthropology clearly


Earliest Sumerian script from Urukfound on clay plates. Evidentlythe prototypes arefibroconstructive signs. Thefarmer’s territorial markers areregistered by central temples fortaxing (Egenter 1980)


Various types of columnsused in temples of AncientEgypt. Though thismonumentalised types arehewn in stone, theirprimary fibroconstructivecondition clearly expressedin their texture.The templearchitecture of AncientEgypt is thus not a newinvention of ingeniousdesigners (Spiro Kostof),but the monumentalisationof the fibroconstructivearchitecture of predynasticagrarian villages


shows its validity. Due to rich archaeological sources, theanthropological method outlined, provides considerable newinsights into institutional processes.

Walter Andrae was a prominent figure of the Germanarchitecturo-archaeological research, which was active inMesopotamia and Ancient Egypt in the thirties of the lastcentury. Andrae has strongly emphasised this aspect of‘metabolism’ between ephemeral and durable materials in thisdomain. In his book ‘The Ionian Column, Built Form or Symbol?’(1933), he presented a great quantity of archaeological sourcessupporting the thesis of a fibroconstructive substrata amongpre-dynastic village cultures of the Ancient Near East and Egypt.

This leads to an entirely new evaluation of early civilisation.Innovations were essentially of technological character. The firstcities and empires owed their existence mainly to the‘monumentalisation’ of cyclically renewed fibrous ‘documents’of the constitutional archives of pre-dynastic villages. They werecopied into durable materials, which allowed the spatialextension of empires.Villages could be controlled fromimpressively built cult centres as the top institution of amonumental theocratic system of territorial control. The materialexpenditures of the cyclic village cults were centralised on thehigher level as taxes and labour. This allowed the accumulationof wealth in the centres. The cyclic time concept of the villageswas superseded with linear time, expressed by ‘eternal’buildings. As Hermann Kees (1980) has described clearly,hegemonic processes then developed on the regional district-level as well as on the imperial level with corresponding cultsand temples. The originally autonomous agricultural settlementwas subdued to centralised control by means of themonumentalised cult system. Theocracy appeared as a politicalform.

CONCLCONCLCONCLCONCLCONCLUSIONUSIONUSIONUSIONUSION

Architecture defined in an anthropologically wider frameworkreveals new aspects of the human condition. Based primarily on‘constructivity’ it appears closely related to the subhuman andhuman existence. Closely related to the anthropology of habitat,architecture shows important new aspects in regard to territorialorganisation and sedentarisation as well as in view of theformation of early civilisations.

With increasing urbanisation of the world, rationalisedarchitecture has become an important part of the modern humancondition. But, architecture cannot be reconceived in itsconventional circles anymore. The methods have to be extendedtowards global horizons introducing perspectives ofanthropological temporal depths. ‘Architectural theory’ is amatter of anthropology. Anthropology will have to clarify thefactual complexity of the architectural domain in regard to thehuman condition.

Pharaoh raising the Djed pillar at the30-years’ jubilee festival of hisgovernment

Paleolithic ‘Tectiformes’ of thehutlike type (Font de Gaume)

Egyptian sanctuary showing Djed pillar as a placemarker and Djed pillars and ‘Isis-knots’ as gatemarkers (access-place scheme)

Ancient Near Eastern sanctuary in a cattle-breederenvironment showing one flower-decoratedfibroconstructive place-marker of the cylindrical typeand two pairs of gate markers, one pair of the Ishtar signtype, one pair of the compact cylindrical type (access-place scheme)


Working with Bollnow’sevolution of human spaceperception we can understandafresh the processes of theextension of territorial control,the function of toposemanticdemarcation as structuralmodels and its impacts on thedevelopment of humancognition from concepts ofcategorical polarity(coincidentia oppositorum, orYinYang etc.) to analyticalconcepts in science and itsconflicts with religion whichremains essentially harmoniousor polar in its expressions

anthropology of habitat and architecture

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