Abstract
Longitudinal or time line studies of change in the architecture of a particular culture are common, but an area still open to further research is change across space or place. In particular, there is need for studies on architectural change of cultures stemming from the same ethnic source split between their homeland and other Diasporas. This change may range from minor deviations to drastic shifts away from an architectural norm and the accumulation of these shifts within a time frame constitutes variations. This article focuses on identifying variations in the architecture of the Ijo fishing group that migrates along the coastline of West Africa. It examines the causes of cross-cultural variation between base camp dwellings of Ijo migrant fishermen in the Bakassi Peninsula in Cameroon and Bayelsa State in Nigeria. The study draws on the idea of the inevitability of cultural and social change over time as proposed in the theories of cultural dynamism and evolution. It tests aspects of cultural transmission theory using the principal coordinates analysis to ascertain the possible causes of variation. From the findings, this research argues that migration has enhanced the forces of cultural dynamism, which have resulted in significant variations in the architecture of this fishing group.
Highlights
The need for investigating change in society through material culture such as vernacular architecture was emphasized by Turan (1990)
It is important to note that the traits borrowed from their neighboring group relates more to building components and external architectural features as listed in Table 1 and not to spatial configuration
The principal coordinate analysis (PCA) only revealed the source of the exterior variations
Summary
The need for investigating change in society through material culture such as vernacular architecture was emphasized by Turan (1990). Rapoport and Hardie (1991) argue that for vernacular architecture, the process of culture change and associated changes to the built environment is dynamic, so that the problem is to identify persisting traditional elements, as well as disappearing, changing, or new elements in the built environment. Based on this concept, architecture is subject to change by external influences and by its inherent tendency to do so
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