Anthropology 123
3:30-4:45, Tu.Th.
Auditorium (121), Hanes Art Building
Professor, Norris Brock Johnson
Office: 305-B Alumni Bldg.
E-mail: norris_johnson@unc.edu
We live out most of our lives (most of us, fortunately) sheltered within
the architectured spaces and places
we build for ourselves - habitats.
Each one of us continues to experience, intimately, a place and a space
in which we... dwell.
Though often taken-for-granted, houses
and landscape environments are ever-present settings for our vital
life experiences.
Though most all of us have on-going experiences
with houses, our experiences for the most part are limited to built places
and spaces within one’s own society and
culture. This course, then, emphasizes
study of the physical forms, functions
and uses, and symbolic meanings of buildings
and landscape environments occurring around the world and, in several instances,
within the prehistoric past.
This is a course in comparative architecture, studied cross-culturally.
The houses, landscapes, and aspects of nature
we will study are disappearing rapidly
and, because they are not 'modern,' often are denigrated and dismissed
as "primitive."
Yet, the architecture of the peoples we
will study is monumental in vision and, as such, is an important contribution
to human
knowledge to be known... and remembered.
Welcome to Anthropology 123, Habitat and Humanity.
Themes
Three broad themes organize and connect the varied bodies of knowledge
comprising this course:
(1) A basic theme in this course is the on-going comparison
of dwellings associated with deities, spirits,
and/or ancestors (sacred, "religious"
dwellings), and residential dwellings, houses, inhabited by people.
We will note similarities and differences between the spiritual aspects
of residential dwellings as well as the house-like aspects of dwellings
deemed sacred.
The houses in which we live in many ways
are akin to temples, shrines, mosques, churches, and synagogues while aspects
of these types of dwellings in many unexpected ways are akin to the residential
houses in which we dwell. Indeed, as we will see, many cultures view
the 'earth' (terra firma ) itself, on which we dwell, sacred.
(2) Architecture is important to us, psychologically.
We impart meanings, symbolism, to the places and spaces within
which occur our most intimate life experiences.
Throughout this course, we will discover the manner in which people throughout
the world continue to attribute, to find,
vital meanings within building and landscape environments.
(3) In our study of habitats and dwellings around the world,
we will see that architecture is a relationship - the relationship
between buildings, people and other animals,
the surrounding natural environment, and the cosmos itself.
This course encourages you to reflect upon your experiences within the
buildings and landscapes in which you live,
by way of comparison with sacred and residential
dwellings in cultures other than your own. The study of architecture
is
an interesting way to know and reflect
upon ourselves. "We built houses," it is said, "then houses build
us."
In what manner have the buildings and
landscape environments in which you live out your life affected you?
"Built" you?
Course Goals:
(1) to impart factual knowledge of the types of houses and landscape environments
occurring in a variety of cultures
around the world and throughout human
history.
(2) to present the common physical forms, uses and functions, and social/cultural
meanings of selected dwellings,
aspects of nature, and human-made landscape
environments.
(3) to identify similarities and differences between residential and explicitly
sacred building architecture,
concepts of nature, and human-made landscape
environments.
For each section of this course, you are
expected to be able to:
(1) demonstrate command of the vocabulary, the terms and concepts, important
to the cross-cultural study
of building and landscape architecture.
(2) visually recognize specific dwellings studied, their geographic locations,
and related aspects of the societies
and cultures in which they occur.
(3) visually recognize and identify the physical forms, uses and functions,
and social and cultural meanings
of the dwellings and landscapes studied.
This course is oriented
toward undergraduate students in General College as well as Arts and Sciences
students
with little or no exposure to the study
of anthropology or architecture. Anthropology 123 is a General College
Humanities/Fine Arts (Visual, Performing,
and Literary Arts Perspective) course.
Course Readings and Materials (available
at Student Stores)
(1) Course pack. A detailed Reading Guide precedes
each article in your course pack of readings. The guides alert
you to terms, concepts, and other basic material in each reading.
Examination questions often will be drawn from the reading guides,
but exams will not be limited to reading guide material.
(2) Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living
World, by Linda Hogan
Internet Page:
A course webpage
( www.unc.edu/courses/2003fall/anth/023/001 ) is available
for you to study
the visual material important to this
course. The web page contains links to photographs shown in class
as well as links to the photographic material,
often not well-reproduced, in your xeroxed course packs.
The course webpage photographs are in
color and are coordinated with pages in your readings, and the readings
are organized by author. It is recommended
that you print out selected copies, to study, of photographs from the web
page
on which the professor places emphasis.
Examinations
• In-class quizzes: there are three quizzes and
a final examination, in this course. The quizzes and final examination
contain computer-scored multiple-choice/
matching questions. For each in-class examination, bring to class
two pencils
and a scoring sheet ("bubble sheets,"
available at Student Stores). We will not provide these materials
for you.
Each quiz contains @ 70 questions, in
two sections: (1) questions (@35) on the photographic illustrations
from your readings. @ 6-10
slides will be shown during each quiz, and you will answer questions about
the slides
on your scoring sheets. (2)
questions (@ 35) on assigned readings and lecture material, with emphasis
on slides
of buildings and landscapes intensively
studied in class Approximately 50% of the questions in this section address
class lecture material and approximately
50% of the questions address assigned reading material.
Review/Study Sessions:
Pre-test review and discussion sessions periodically (before each quiz,
and as enough students sign up for one)
will be held at a variety of times and
places, to be announced. Teaching Assistants will explain how to
sign up
for review sessions led by the Teaching
Assistants. You can attend these sessions, as you like;
attendance at these sessions is recommended,
but voluntary (no credit points given).
Course Outline, Topics, and Reading Assignments
Introduction:
Architecture: religious and domestic
The comparative, cross-cultural perspective
The course, and the Instructor
I. Patterns: Religious Architecture and Symbolism
“What are several commonalties (physical form; function; meaning) of religious
buildings
and religious landscapes?”
"What is meant by 'sacred'?
* Sanchi, India (Buddhism)
On sacred architecture
* Stonehenge, England
* Synagogues and Tabernacles, Mosques (Ka'bah), and Shrines (Dome
of the Rock)
II. Cross-Cultural Comparative Perspectives
"What is meant by 'archetype'?"
"What are the primary forms of architecture?"
"In what architectural ways is a house… religious?"
* Kiva (Pueblo Indians)
Dwellings: Building and Landscape Architecture
"What are the basic principles of architecture?"
* Yurt (Mongolia)
Architecture: Form and Symbolic Meaning
"What are the various meanings of symbol?"
"In what ways is architecture symbolic?"
* Hogan (Navaho Indians)
Dwellings, and the Natural Environment
"How do people construct intimate interrelationships of dwelling and nature"?
* Iglu (Inuit /"Eskimo")
* Tipi (Plains Indians)
Organic and Earth Dwellings
"What is meant by 'organic architecture'"?
* Cave dwellings (Turkey; China)
Landscape and Buildings as Religious Architecture
"What is the relationship between dwellings placed within the earth, and religion?"
* Japanese temples and Shrines (Kyoto and Kamakura)
Design: Dwelling Spaces, and Meanings
"What are several basic processes of architectural design and construction"?
* House altars and sacred spaces (Japan)
Architecture-as-Values
"How does architecture and architectural space condition values, habits, and relationship?"
* Public school architecture (United States)
III. Terra Firma as Habitat
"In what manner can the earth be considered a human habitat"
* The Gaia Hypothesis (James Lovelock)
* Dwellings