LL-L "Architecture" 2003.09.25 (10) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

======================================================================
L O W L A N D S - L * 26.SEP.2003 (10) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
http://www.lowlands-l.net * lowlands-l at lowlands-l.net
Rules & Guidelines: http://www.lowlands-l.net/index.php?page=rules
Posting Address: lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org
Server Manual: http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8c/userindex.html
Archives: http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/lowlands-l.html
Encoding: Unicode (UTF-8) [Please switch your view mode to it.]
=======================================================================
You have received this because you have been subscribed upon request.
To unsubscribe, please send the command "signoff lowlands-l" as message
text from the same account to listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org or
sign off at http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html.
=======================================================================
A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
=======================================================================

From: Pat Reynolds <pat at caerlas.demon.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Architecture" 2003.09.25 (06) [E]

A number of years ago, I was employed by English Heritage (our national
buildings organization), cataloguing a collection in Great Yarmouth
which included a number of wall anchors (muurankeren).  Looking for
existing parallels to the Great Yarmouth buildings  in other places, I
became aware that buildings around the world have been classified as
being in some way a 'Dutch', 'Flemish', or 'Low Countries' house type or
types.  Many of these buildings were constructed during the period of
VoC and WIC (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie and  West-Indische
Compagnie - the Dutch East and West India Companies) colonisation and
its aftermath in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This a period
when the Dutch nation-state itself was being formed, with European
examples dating from around the commencement of the war of independence
in 1568.
In looking in books for parallels, I soon became aware that the iron
ties were rarely mentioned, but that other features of buildings were
being used to classify a building as 'Dutch' in handbooks to vernacular
building recognition, or in explaining the ethnicity of a building.
These writers - who included buildings historians, archaeologists,
tourism officers and travellers were engaging in what Douglas (1982,
200-1) calls polythetic classification: identifying classes by the
presence of a combination of characteristics, but not absolutely
requiring any one of the characteristic features to be present in every
member of a class'.  After completing my work for English Heritage, I
still felt my understanding of 'Dutch' buildings was incomplete, and so
I enrolled on a doctoral degree, with these buildings as my focus.
The polythetic approach has been found to be of  limited usefulness by
some (e.g. Cohen 1992, 36-7), but this was before statistical tools for
analysing large numbers of possibly independent variables became widely
known and use in building studies. I am particularly interested in using
polythetic classification to explore descriptions which by their nature
are partial, my interest in description stemming from Wallace Steven's
observation that 'People do not live in places but in the description of
places' (quoted in Cohen 1997, 73).
Examination of descriptions of 'Dutch' buildings in England, the United
States, the Caribbean and Brazil has lead to 147 variables being
identified, including individual features (such as stoops/stoeps),
contexts (such as the planting of trees in relation to the building) and
broader aspects of style (such as 'having big windows') - 'step gables'
are a feature used in this classification.  Stepped gables are mentioned
as 'Dutch' in 60% of English sources, but only 30% of US sources, and
not at all in Brazilian or Caribbean sources.  I'm afraid I have not
crunched the numbers yet to be able to say how this reflects the
proportion of buildings in each of these areas which has this feature.

With best wishes to all,

Pat

Research student, Dept. of Archaeology, University of York (inter alia)

Cohen, David Steven (1992) The Dutch-American Farm New York

Cohen Paul (1997) 'Out of the melting pot into the fire next time:
imagining the East End as city, body, text' in Sallie Westwood (ed.)
Imagining Cities: Scripts, Signs, Memory 73-85  London

--
Pat Reynolds
pat at caerlas.demon.co.uk
   "It might look a bit messy now,
                    but just you come back in 500 years time"
   (T. Pratchett)

================================END===================================
* Please submit postings to lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org.
* Postings will be displayed unedited in digest form.
* Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.
* Commands for automated functions (including "signoff lowlands-l") are
  to be sent to listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org or at
  http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html.
=======================================================================