Design as culture: Understanding vernacular architecture of indigenous tribal community of India

Abstract

This paper presents understanding of symbolic meanings in vernacular architecture of a tribal community in Karnataka, South India known as Jenu Kurubas. An ethnographic study is conducted to document the lifestyle, beliefs, narratives and customs of the community. Further, structural semiotics is applied to analyze the myths and narratives to identify the hidden messages through oppositions and correlations. The study concludes that the oppositions, logical relations and correlations observed in narratives are also represented in the geographical, socio-cultural, cosmological and techno-economic schemas as principles and attributes of vernacular architecture.