A great way to study culture is by analysing interior and home design. I find it interesting to explore how people design and decorate their homes in different countries these days and how they did it in the past: it can sometimes tell more about their personalities and worldviews than any other thing. Anthropologists view home design as one of the keys to understanding people's ways of thinking and ideas about the world, especially when it comes to studying old traditional houses: the room layout, location of different elements in the home, door and window placement, etc.
So, how can we look at the interior design from the point of view of anthropology?
Traditional Huts
One way is to explore traditional house layouts and their cultural meanings. They can be quite informative as they reflect a lot about the traditions of the past, ideas, experiences, and associations people used to have with different parts of the house and pieces of furniture. They can also tell a great deal about how people perceived the world around them.
These days, when planning their homes, people are often guided by purely practical or aesthetic considerations. They usually arrange the furniture in a random order, however they feel like. In the old days, people rarely did anything in a random way. Practically everything, down to the smallest details of embroidery on clothes, was filled with deep meaning. And the housing construction - even more so.
A good example is the Slavic hut.
In the eyes of ancient Slavs, the hut represented the Universe - with the sky, the earth, the "lower world" and the cardinal points. Each of the cardinal points had a symbolic meaning. The south and east were associated with the sunrise, life, and warmth. The north and west symbolized the "death" of the sun, cold, winter, and dark forces.
Hence, people sought to arrange their homes so that it would be impossible for the forces of evil and cold to sneak inside.
Traditionally, the hut was divided into 4 corners: stove corner, female corner, male corner, and red corner.
Stove Corner
To the right of the entrance was the stove corner. In the home, this area was considered sacred. People were afraid to swear around the stove because she was revered. It was associated with warmth and friendliness, and was placed in the northern corner of the house as an impenetrable barrier to the powers of death and evil that tried to get inside the dwelling (or so it was thought). This was also considered to be the place where Brownie (the house spirit) lived.
The area next to the stove, where the entrance to the underground (cellar) was located, was considered to be dark, dirty, and a gathering spot for supernatural beings.
Female Corner
Next to the stove, there was the female corner, where the kitchen was located. The female corner was considered an exclusively female space in the family, where women cooked food and rested after work. It was separated from the rest of the hut by a curtain, and often by a wooden partition. Male family members avoided the female corner, and the appearance of an outsider here was unacceptable and regarded as an insult.
Male Corner
On the left side of the entrance, there was the male corner (also called the master's corner or the bunk corner). This is where bunk beds were located. Men repaired inventory here, wove bast shoes, etc.
Red Corner
Red corner (from the old Slav. krasn - “beautiful"). It had many other names: holy corner, front corner, upper corner, kutnik. Eastern Slavs considered this to be the most honourable place in the hut.
As a rule, it was located diagonally from the stove in the southern or southeastern corner of the dwelling, in the space between the side and front walls. The red corner was well-lit, as both adjoining walls had windows.
A guest could only visit the red corner at the special invitation of the hosts.
The main attribute of the red corner was an icon shelf. The icons were placed so that it was the first thing a visitor would pay attention to. When entering or leaving a house, a Christian first of all rendered honours to Christ, and only then to the owner of the house.
The red corner was the place for performing daily prayers. The gospel and objects consecrated in the church were also kept here, like Easter eggs, holy water, and willow twigs.
The exact features of room layout and design naturally varied depending on the period and region, but a lot of Slavic huts still shared the features described above.
What Our Design Choices Say About Us
In a world where it's so easy to order your furniture on Amazon and have it delivered the same day, it's easy to forget that home design is so much more than just aesthetics and practicality. Anthropology reminds us that the way we decorate our homes can disclose a lot about our culture and history, from the placement of the stove to the arrangement of the furniture. By taking a look at traditional house layouts, we can learn about how people in the past viewed the world around them and their place in it.
It's fascinating to think that something as simple as the placement of an icon shelf or the separation of male and female corners can offer such a rich glimpse into a society's spiritual and social practices. So, the next time you're designing your home or rearranging the furniture, take a moment to think about what your design choices might say about your culture and personality. Who knows what interesting discoveries you might make!
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