Folklore, Culture, and Vernacular Architecture

The folklore and vernacular architecture are constituents as well as paradigms of study of culture. “Culture” is the term often used to denote the aesthetic and intellectual achievements of a society that present as well as conveys the identity of the society.

To Ruth Benedict “Culture is the sociological term for learned behaviour” (Barnard & Spencer:2010), while E.B. Tylor said,

“Culture or civilization, taken in its wide ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society” (Sinha:2009:19798).

These definitions can be held as the well comprehensive definition of the concept of culture. It is evident from the above definitions that the concept of culture embraces a number of aspects of a society, which are simultaneously demonstrated by folklore and vernacular architecture also. The culture of a group is regarded as the identifying virtues, so may be the vernacular architecture as “close relation of housing and culture also implies that housing, often, although not always, communicates identity” (Rapoport:2000). Likewise, folklore is another concept or body of materials used in synonymous manner, which too comprises and highlights similar aspects of the society.

The vernacular architecture is one important segment of culture and folklore as:

“Buildings are relatively complex things and are such direct and conscious expression of culture” (Domer:1989).

Glassie said,

“As a concept drawn from shared experience, architecture is like all culture”.

And:

“As cultural, architecture is conceptual, a matter of shaping memory into plans, plans into things that can be sensed by other people. So architecture is a variety of communication” (Glassie:1984:8).

Both folklore and vernacular architecture is product of a society that is interwoven with their way of life.

Pearson and Richards quoting Duncan said,

“The house not only embodies personal meanings but also express and maintains the ideology of prevailing social order” (Pearson &Richards:2005:5).

The physical entity of the architecture is one of the constituent items of the material culture or the physical folklife while the intellectual aspects or the knowledge relating to the vernacular architecture is again component of the folklore. This shows the apparent relation of the folklore and the vernacular architecture and both of are the aspects of culture. If we envisage the probable development of the culture and folklore, the main catalyst turns out to be the development of residence and architecture. The conceptual, cultural as well as the technological progression in human have contributed in the development of architecture and vice versa. Architecture in essence defines space, the space that perhaps contributed in developing the idea of systematic unified living because “house is designed primarily to bring people into intimate interaction and only secondarily to protect them from the mutable weather” (Glassie:1984:15).

This might have gradually developed the concept of family and homestead while the unified living, urge of sharing, and communication might have gradually developed the folklore and culture.

The vernacular architecture is that fraction of the folklore materials which demands primarily empirical study because of the nature of the material. Because, for proper understanding and appreciation, it is obligatory to visually observe the architectures in the field itself. Simultaneously, the socio-cultural implications and technical nuances of the architectures also naturally come into the purview of study. Thus, the socio-cultural facet of vernacular architecture, its place or role in the life and culture of people, the socio-religious and supernatural implications, etc. are the aspects that can be regarded as the context of vernacular architecture. Simultaneously, certain technical, artistic or aesthetic rendering in the architectures are turns out as the textual aspects. Thus, these architectures are closely connected with the traditional culture and folklore of a society. Hence, the empirical and qualitative information are equally crucial and valuable. Folklore exists and continues on verbal traditions while the existence, continuation, and transmission of folklore material in the oral tradition are subject to various practical conditions and situations. These factors, challenges, changes as well as the changing situation are worth subjects of study by the folklorist.

The majority of the population, organized in the social units of village -in the loose sense of the term–are the hub of the traditional culture and folklore. The villages, with their settlement pattern and traditional layout, highlight not only the built environment but also display the apparent ethnic identity of the population. Thus, the arrangement and disposition of the homesteads along the stretch of the road as well as the layout of the homestead or the arrangement of the houses and accessories of homestead gives the initial but trustworthy clue about the nature and identity of population. Simultaneously, the architectures of the homestead, their disposition can further reiterate this identity through their characteristic features.

Noble rightly observed:

These buildings, usually called folk or vernacular structures, reflect the attitudes, the tradition and the culture of the ethnic group to which their builders belong. Furthermore, these structures often provide a distinctive signature defining particular areas of the cultural landscape. (Noble:1991:1)

Similarly, vernacular architectures are not merely the enclosed spaces that shelters humans. Rather, they are the architectures that yield a home, inhabited, shared, and maintained by its dwellers. Moreover, they are not mere structures as they are associated with certain traditionally maintained norms and values. These traditions, values, and norms are very much part of the life that shapes the culture.