Indigenous house construction of the Mao Nagas: A sustainable perspective

Abstract

There has been a resurgence of interest in recent years for an infusion of scientific and indigenous knowledge. With the perennial rising temperature and global warming, scientific knowledge and development about ecology and its environment has failed to some extent. The call for indigenous beliefs and practices in sustainability and care for the environment has become necessary. Scientific knowledge does not have a long and time-tested history. Indigenous practices, on the other, have stood the test of time to prove that it is sustainable and that the materials used for house construction are eco-friendly. The Mao indigenous community has centuries of practices where houses built could withstand cold conditions on the mountain tops. Even during summer, the house can provide a comfortable stay without fans and air-conditioners. The materials used for these house constructions are forest products, wood, thatch, mud, bamboo, and stones. If modern houses could imbibe certain indigenous aspects of the indigenous communities, the marked difference can be felt in times to come. The methodology of the paper will be through a qualitative prism where the participant observation method and an interdisciplinary literature review will be deployed. The paper attempts to present that if certain aspects of indigenous house construction could be blended with modern scientific knowledge, the world could be reverted to a more environmentally and eco-friendly world.