Most communities around the world share similar fundamental aspects of their makeup. However, based on guiding factors surrounding a society, the central necessities may be altered to fit the needs of that individual community. This is especially true where living arrangements and interpersonal bonds are concerned. While the rudimentary elements of these facets hold fast, their interpretation and implementation are determined by individual and specific characteristics of a community. Specifically, the cultures, beliefs, and environmental makeup work in tandem to influence the spatial relationships of a society.
For the Baka of Central Africa, understanding their environment, both its resources and its present dangers, is essential to their …show more content…
In the consideration of living spaces, this value of independence is displayed in the excitement to have one’s own room at the age of 16. Perhaps most contrasting from the Baka, Musuo children have very little involvement with their biological fathers, instead relying on their mother’s brothers as male familial figures. These societies become especially dissimilar when the roles of men and women within the culture are taken into consideration; women run the household while men are mostly free to “play all the time.” One of the most prominently unique aspects of the Musuo culture is the idea of a “walking marriage.” Essentially, the culture places no value on official marriages and instead promotes an idea of “free love” to some extent, which places emphasis on the individual rather than social, economic, or career status. These cultural ideas of individuality also allow females to choose their partners, based solely on mutual attraction. As further evidence of the value of independence for these people, couples don’t live together and instead visit each other in the night, leaving before the rest of the family has awoken in the …show more content…
This is true to the extent that entering another individual’s private living spaces is considered improper. Highly contrasting from the Baka, the Kaguru believe in a strict separation of genders. Women and men both hold value in the community, but their meals and living quarters cannot be shared. This sense of separation is seen throughout the culture, especially where individuality is concerned, but the Kaguru also place high value in separating themselves from primates, which makes the hearth of the home such a significant icon. Not only does the hearth distinguish a human’s ability to cook and make fire, but it also represents the female’s warmth and comfort and signifies her domain in the home. Alternatively, the center-post in the home represents the man’s position above women both “morally and jurally” and displays his protective duty. These staples directly symbolize the roles of men and women in the Kaguru
For the Baka of Central Africa, understanding their environment, both its resources and its present dangers, is essential to their …show more content…
In the consideration of living spaces, this value of independence is displayed in the excitement to have one’s own room at the age of 16. Perhaps most contrasting from the Baka, Musuo children have very little involvement with their biological fathers, instead relying on their mother’s brothers as male familial figures. These societies become especially dissimilar when the roles of men and women within the culture are taken into consideration; women run the household while men are mostly free to “play all the time.” One of the most prominently unique aspects of the Musuo culture is the idea of a “walking marriage.” Essentially, the culture places no value on official marriages and instead promotes an idea of “free love” to some extent, which places emphasis on the individual rather than social, economic, or career status. These cultural ideas of individuality also allow females to choose their partners, based solely on mutual attraction. As further evidence of the value of independence for these people, couples don’t live together and instead visit each other in the night, leaving before the rest of the family has awoken in the …show more content…
This is true to the extent that entering another individual’s private living spaces is considered improper. Highly contrasting from the Baka, the Kaguru believe in a strict separation of genders. Women and men both hold value in the community, but their meals and living quarters cannot be shared. This sense of separation is seen throughout the culture, especially where individuality is concerned, but the Kaguru also place high value in separating themselves from primates, which makes the hearth of the home such a significant icon. Not only does the hearth distinguish a human’s ability to cook and make fire, but it also represents the female’s warmth and comfort and signifies her domain in the home. Alternatively, the center-post in the home represents the man’s position above women both “morally and jurally” and displays his protective duty. These staples directly symbolize the roles of men and women in the Kaguru