Houses Are Human: Architectural Self-Images of Africa's Tamberma

Abstract

Anthropomorphism is a central feature of the architecture of the Tamberma, a Voltaic people of Africa's western savanna. In a variety of ways, the Tamberma suggest that their houses are human, that they represent men and women. Like humans, each house is said to be made from flesh, bones, and blood (earth, pebbles, and water). Many parts of the house also are given distinctively human names and identities (head, eyes, lips, tongue, nose, ear, stomach, bile, penis, etc.). Forms of architectural decoration, and types of symbolic behavior directed towards the house (greeting the house, drinking with the house, shooting the house, feeding the house), are also drawn from human models. This essay explores the multiple human dimensions of these buildings. It discusses the manner in which architecture, by defining the human, helps to clarify Tamberma psychology, and how, through this model, it serves as a central symbol and structuring device in Tamberma psychological and therapeutic processes.

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