Semantic architecture refers to a dia- and synchronically widespreadtype of building which has conventionally been classified and describeddifferently. What is implied by semantic architecture was historicallytermed `life tree` and is widespread in ancient cultures. Over thecourse of Christianisation history `semantic architecture` was calledby ethnologists `fetish`, `idol` {idolatry!} etc. in a derogatorysense, because the veneration of material objects, and particularlycult signs made primitively with vegetable materials at hand could notbe understood from the theological standpoint of `higher` religion.Accordingly it was thought to be an expression of `primitive creed` or`superstition`, but the objects were not researched, neither in regardto form, nor from the perspective of social relations or spatialconditions. Recent ethnographic studies {Egenter 1980, 1982, 1995} showa quite different situation. Semantic architecture of this type appearswithin a semantic system handed down locally in stereotype form sinceprehistoric times. With the formation of sedentary agrarian societiesit must have become important for its territorial, social andideological functions. It has been preserved in favourablecircumstances {e.g. non-Christianised regions of Asia, such as Japan}from protohistoric times to the present as a script-less `archive` oftraditional settlement history and politics.
www.worldarchitecture.org/theory-issues/?position=detail&no=264&title=Architectural%20Anthropology