ABSTRACT
The definition of ‘primitive’ provided by the Oxford English Dictionary offers the
reading, ‘from which another is derived, from which construction begins’, as
though it were a near-base layer which – through removing subsequent layers
of construction – permits a primary architectural form to emerge, as if it were
some evolutionary process. However, the term ‘primitive’ could be defined as
an era; like the terms given to geological time, it has its own characteristics, not
underdeveloped but differently developed – the ‘primitive’ as lodged in its
cultural circumstance, as specific societies in time. Instead of serial consequen-
tial acts of development, it offers leaps of invention in the practical issues of
shelter and its territory in relation to societies’ rituals and underpinnings.
