| dc.description.abstract | This thesis addresses itself to the spatial organisation of the
different environmental levels in late nineteenth century rural
Palestine. A descending spatial order of analysis from the settlement
level to that of the furniture level is adopted. The built space of
Deir Ghassaneh, a Palestinian village located in the central
highlands--the West Bank today--is the focus of this work. In order
to understand the close correspondence between this built space and
the social organisation of the peasant community that produced it, it
was necessary to reconstruct life in Deir Ghassaneh at the turn of
this century, at a time when space and society together constituted a
single socio-spatial whole, and when the village was a relatively
autarkic, subsistnce-based agrarian community in which traditional
modes -including architecture- still prevailed.
Throughout the thesis, the analysis of the different elements which
constituted the village built space is interpreted in the light of
the overarching conceptual framework of seperation and unity. It is
argued that these two countervailing notions governed the nature of
interaction between the dominant Barghouthi clans and the subordinate
fallaheen (peasant) clans. It also governed the spatial ordering of
each element and the ordering of the environment as a whole. Kinship
and gender are seen as two main determinants along which village
social life and spatial order was organised.
Part two of this thesis examines the nature of change that took place
in the built space of Deir Ghassaneh in the light of the dramatic
social transformations during the last seventy years (1916-1986). It
is argued that architectural systems, i. e., new methods of
construction, the use of new building materials, and the adoption of
new building forme, would not be accepted by traditional peasant
society unless this society was exposed to external forces that
operated to undermine the conditions of its existence both at the
symbolic-cultural and material levels. In the case of Deir Ghassaneh,
changes in the architectural forms and the spatial organisation
reflected changes that took place in the socio-economic structure
first, and were then reflected, either in the partial continuity or in
the complete disruption of traditional architectural processes. | en |
