Anasazi Great Houses of the Chaco Canyon Region Essay

It was during the time period that Christ was born that the Anasazi Indians appeared in the Four Corners area which is the area where the boundaries of Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado meet. For the over a thousand years the Anasazi thrived and built their homes into the side of cliffs. These cliff dwellings could only be reached by climbing and made for a great defense system against enemies; some dwellings reached five stories in height and contained hundreds of rooms. Many of the elaborate cliff dwellings and terraced apartment houses built of stone, mud, and wood that dot the Four Corners region still stand today and date back to about 9,000 CE., but the people who comprised this desert culture did not begin to settle into an agricultural lifestyle until around A.D. 400. The Anasazi, which is a Navajo word meaning “the ancient ones”, likely received corn, squash and beans, which are a prime source of protein, added to their diet and the knowledge to raise them from their southern neighbors in Mexico. Vegetable crops provided a reliable food source that made an increase in population possible and also allowed time for other interests such as religion, art, ritual, public works and handicrafts. This allowed the Anasazi society continued to evolve and progress. The ancient ones also possessed beans, a prime source of protein and new varieties of corn. Other innovations included the bow and arrow which eventually replaced spears and at least two varieties of dogs

The Natives built and lived in many small teepees, small dwellings, along with massive adobe homes in the woods using the materials they had found among the land

The Chumash lived along the southern part of California’s warm coastal region. Chumash Indians lived in dome- shaped houses, called aps. Some of the houses could fit up to 70 people. The house was made out of bent willow branches and surf grass. The doorway was covered with a mat of weeds. A fire was usually built in the center of the ap to keep it warm. The ap, therefore, had an opening in the roof to allow smoke from cooking to come out. Each Chumash village usually had houses, a sweat lodge, buildings for storing food, and an area for ceremonies.

As a society the Haida are well known for their highly stylized art form that is expressed in their distinctive carvings and unique traditional house design. Early visitors from the mid 18th century were astonished by the “ingeniousness” of the construction of their houses and the level of detail in the carvings into the wood of their homes and totem poles using only basic technology. (History Museum) The combination of their culture, the materials they had available and the climate of the islands heavily influence their architectural style. This also meant they were very isolated from the rest of the world and had strongly developed their technique of carving and building construction. With advanced skills

Chiefs felt at ease to alter aboriginal architectural to suit their own aesthetic appeal and desire. They were quick to “incorporate western notions of domestic space than the commoners in more rural areas”. Now, western elements were considered as only the elite few could afford. The chiefs “opened [their] houses for a more public display of status-enhancing European goods” (Ladegoged, #). By 1837, even local houses used material found in Hawaii but with more Western elements incorporated into the design of architecture, for example “windows, high ceilings and large portal entrances” (“Hawaii

Some people don’t know the great and amazing place called Manchu Picchu, which is an old Inca building that many architects admire. Those people don’t know that thousands of tourists and visitors come to look at it, wonder about its past, and to reflect off of it. In source two, the author states that “A world heritage is a place that is amazing. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization support that Machu Picchu is a world heritage.” This shows the reader how important and stunning Machu Picchu was. In this essay we are going to talk about what was so amazing about Machu Picchu, how it affected the environment and how it inspired architects, and how and who made it.

The Pomo Indians used nearby trees, such as redwoods, to build their homes. They would take a center pole and pile thick pieces of bark against it. These homes were small, usually 8-10 feet tall. These homes were not portable, but they were small and easy to build. (native-languages.org). Among the Indian tribes who lived here were the Miwoks and the Pomos.-Emerson

One of the most important structures to the Native American tribes of Western New York is the longhouse. This structure built only of wood. These structures allowed for these people to stay warm throughout winters that could be as harsh as any we have seen. The masterly crafted houses provided warmth in the winter and in the summers allowed for the air to flow through and keep the house cool. Without these houses, the tribes of New York would not have survived.

There was once a Native American clan that widely cohabitated in the Southwestern part of America. This clan would soon come to be recognized as the Anasazi or, the “Ancient One’s”, by researchers who studied in depth their culture and geographical movements. Artifacts and other findings have expressed to archaeologists that their lifestyle was not only very well established but also efficient. They had adapted methods of hunting and gathering, they were knowledgeable farmers who had actually developed their own method of an irrigation system to water their crops (maize, squash, and a variety of beans), and they were skilled builders. Their homes were known to be made of structured stone, often times organized in a way that is known today as cliff dwellings. In addition to these

At the peak of their dynamic culture, the Anasazi developed the Chaco Canyon. Within the canyon, they constructed many pueblos, totaling nearly seven hundred rooms. In addition, they built water-collection systems and a network of roads. It was a massive achievement in engineering.

The large number of people moving into cities and the majority of the population living in poverty both urban and rural it is the price of the concrete block that creates Mexico’s vernacular housing. A build as you go, use what you have, and build only what you need attitude all combine to help create this endemic. However, looking across suburbs throughout Mexico, “what you need” can be misleading, many of the houses are only partially built and continually adding on. “SEEING CONCRETE BLOCKS AS VERNACULAER, REMOVES THE NOTION THAT THIS MATERIAL IS HOMGENIZING AND AHISTORICAL” – FRY 2008. Tepetzil concrete blocks are the most popular blocks, most are exposed, however wealthier families will add a coat of painting or plaster to the outer wall. Modern machinery has accelerated the production of blocks and are now formed at a very low cost. Both rural and city citizens recognize these to be very light weight, durable, able to with stand multiple weather conditions and most of all easy to build with; which help make the tepetzil block to be the most popular. Due to low wages and frequent unemployment, the overhead cost of purchasing and building with Tepetzil blocks outweigh the negatives. The deep history of architecture housing throughout Mexico is special, not only from the diverse structures within each city, but the world as

The Incas were masters of this technique, called ashlar, in which blocks of stone are cut to fit together tightly without the use of mortar. Because of the position of Machu Picchu, the citadel is vulnerable to seismic activity due to the fault lines running on either side of the site, which rendered mortar and similar building techniques useless. The Incas were aware of this issue and instead mined stone from a natural quarry nearby and shaped the pieces to fit perfectly together, which made the buildings sturdier than mortar would. This skill enabled the Incas to construct over 200 buildings and terraces on top of the mountain. Other stabilizing features of Incan buildings are the trapezoidal-shaped doors and windows, this attribute was not only for practical reasons, as it is often observed that many doors and openings, when peered through, frame the surrounding mountains perfectly. Again, this shows how closely nature was taken into consideration when planning Machu Picchu. The site of Machu Picchu is of “exceptional scenic and geomorphological beauty thereby providing an outstanding example of a longstanding harmonious and aesthetically stunning relationship between human culture and nature”[3], and should undoubtedly be provided with a grant in order to sustain this important archaeological

The article explains that the building of Chaco house is used for residential purposes, and provides three competing theories. However, the professor expanse that the houses were not use for residential purposes and refutes each of the author’s reasons.

I’m doing a research on the Inca civilization here is all the information I got for the Inca tribe. The Inca civilization existed in 1438 A.D. The Inca civilization lived in a large portion of western South America, centered on the Andean mountain ranges, Peru, large parts of modern Ecuador, western and south central Bolivia, northwest Argentina. The type of structures the Inca built was roads, rope bridges, cellular polygonal masonry, cyclopean polygonal masonry, encased coursed masonry, sedimentary course masonry. Here is one of the examples of the most famous buildings the Inca built the lost city of Inca, is one of the most archaeological sites in South America

The way religion and belief would infiltrate in architecture is by granting and dedicating complete ownership of the projects and structures to the deities and the leader. “Each Sumerian city-state had its own local god, who was regarded as its “king” and owner. It also had a human ruler…who led the people in serving the deity; in effect, he was a priest-king…The idea of divine ownership was not a pious fiction. The god was believed to own not only the territory of the city-state but also the labor of the population and its products” (Janson). One can see that these civilization gives priority of their work to religious purposes. This includes the molding of how they experience the habitable space. Since the Sumerians were into this belief and emphasize the reaching of the divine sky and deities, that influenced how they