Research On Morphology And Structure Of Settlements From The Perspective Of Spatial Anthropology

This paper explores the multidimensional causes of settlement spatial morphology and structure.It take space anthropology as that field of view to gather space as the object of research.Cultural anthropology studies the past,present and future of human society and focuses on the exploration of human society's diversity.It is based on the theory and method of cultural anthropology.To construct a new perspective of spatial anthropology and interpret the organizational form of settlement space.It starts from the three aspects of livelihood,cooperation and order,taking various organization modes of human society as clues.The spatial form and structure of settlements are understood from three aspects: livelihood pattern,social organization,politics and religion.The spatial pattern of settlements under the perspective of livelihood mode is that human beings live in natural ecological environment.It is the product of the selection,utilization and control of land,water and other resources.Agricultural economy and commercial economy are two basic economic types of human settlement society.This mode acts on the settlement space deeply,forming stable and dispersed,uniform distribution of rural settlements and centralized,hierarchical distribution of commercial settlements.There are totally different spatial patterns of settlements.From the perspective of social organization,the spatial form of settlements is the material space of housing,which carries the social unit--family,as the general architectural type and spatial unit of settlements.Units are clustered according to kinship networks and common interests.It forms closed,exclusive and hierarchical family settlements and open,inclusive and class-differentiated industrial settlements,with totally different spatial patterns of settlements.Politics and religion are important guarantees to maintain social order and prevent social disorder.Stable political organizations constitute the administrative system of human society.Through formal social control and informal social control,such as laws,regulations and social norms,the system works together in the spatial form of settlements.Religion is the spiritual pursuit of human beings,but also a way of organization and management.Through faith,value,lifestyle and norms,the shape of the settlement space is determined.The evolution of settlement spatial pattern is a dynamic process,which is the result of the interaction and diachronic changes of various factors.Different evolution processes,reasons and rules give rise to different settlements pattern,which reflect the dynamic composition of diversity and complexity of spatial structure of settlements.