Hello Ken 3141-ga:
You asked: "Why are the doors on mud buildings and homes in rural
Afghanistan (and other similar countries?) so short?"
I agree with you that the size of a door doesn't seem to have much to
do with access to fields! So I started hunting around:
In searching for small doors in mud homes, the first hit I got was
from "An Introduction to the Traditional Architecture of the Arabian
Gulf" at:
http://www.agmgifts.co.uk/resources/article.html
This article notes: "Thick, well-insulated walls help to minimize heat
gain
by conduction, but this needs to be reinforced by reducing the effects
of
radiant heat - or, in plain English - keeping direct sunlight out of
the
rooms. Consequently, a common feature of Arabian indigenous
architecture is
the absence of windows on the exterior walls of a house."
Although the doors described in this article aren't short, the above
explanation underscores the need to protect homes from the heat of the
sun,
and would seem to apply to Afghanistan's (and other countries') short,
small
doors, and small -- or lack of any -- windows.
Another possible explanation came from City of The Prophet, Spring
1998
issue, at:
http://www.saudiembassy.net/publications/magazine-summer98/doors.htm
"Wood was primarily used in Saudi Arabia for structural and decorative
purposes. Its scarcity in many regions of the Kingdom deemed it a very
precious commodity to be used sparingly."
That site has photos of several different styles of doors, but the
passage I quoted illustrates that the cost of wood can be prohibitive
in some parts of the world, like the Middle East. In fact, I did find
several fleeting references at other sites about poor, rural villages,
which briefly noted wood is very expensive, leading one to assume
that's another reason why small doors are common in poorer
communities. If you can't afford to buy wood at all, then of course
you would really need to keep the open doorway (those are often
covered with cloth) as tiny as possible to prevent sunlight from
flooding in.
I had more luck using the term: "origins mud buildings door," which
brought
up (this is either a book or a dissertation), "Traditional Houses in
the
North West of Ghana," at:
http://www.abderhalden.com/Dagaare%20Building.htm
Chapter One on that page contains a section on "Windows and Doors" in
homes in the village of Dagaare: "A typical traditional Dagao believes
that the main function of a home is to shelter the occupants against
the weather; so that if there are to be windows, they should be as
small as possible. The windows to the huts are no more than small
holes in the mud walls. Sizes of doors differ depending on the size
and purpose of the room. . . . If there is going to be any other
gateway leading into the house it would not be anything measuring
more than 150 by 90 cm. . . ."
You mentioned that you'd been told small doors make homes easier to
defend. My search for "3-foot door mud" brought up a Web site for
"CALL (Center For Army Lessons Learned), which notes that the U.S.
military, while fighting Taliban forces, quickly learned that
mud/adobe homes are far more resistant to gunfire (and other forms of
punishment), than are homes made of wood and cinder brick:
http://call.army.mil/Products/NEWSLTRS/03-4/app-g.htm
Now, I realize that mud buildings pre-date firearms! But mud/ adobe
offers great protection, and if that is your primary goal, then you
want as much of the walls as possible to be mud; hence, one can
reason, you would want doors (or any openings) to be very small.
So, going back eons, this "fortress mentality" could well have been a
factor for keeping windows and doorways as tiny as possible. It does
make sense that a bunch of thugs would have a hard time pulling off an
ambush if each of them had to stoop and scrunch to enter the house! At
least it would buy the homeowner a little time.
Another consideration, and this is my conjecture, small doors and
doorways lessen the chances of women in any household being glimpsed
from the street. Many Muslim women don't wear their burkas while
inside their homes.
This page:
http://www.natmus.cul.na/samp/mwwtheme/th2thapelo.html
purportedly has to do with origins of mud buildings, but I can't get
the darn thing to load! But you may want to give this page a try
yourself.
In summary, the two main reasons -- so far as I can ascertain -- for
tiny doors and doorways: 1): they help keep out harsh sunlight; 2):
the cost of wood for doors appears prohibitive for the poor. I noticed
in photos at various sites (sites, as it turned out, that weren't
germane to your specific question) that homes in Middle Eastern cities
tend to have larger, even rather elaborate metal or wooden doors, so
cost does seem to be a factor.
I also found this page about Caritas, which helped Afghan refugees
build one-room mud homes:
http://www.cafod.org.uk/afghanistan/afghanistan20020527.shtml
Notice in the top photo that the doorway is very tiny (there is no
actual door that closes, from what I can tell), but when you scroll
down you see a home with a door that, while not as large as a Western
door, is larger than the one depicted in the top photo, and it seems
to have wooden beams around it. (There may be an actual door that
opens and closes -- I can't tell.) The article doesn't explain door
sizes, etc., but does note that carpenters helped in building the
homes. It may be because of their expertise that at least some of
these new homes appear to have larger doors. Also, donations to
Caritas may well have covered the cost of wood for doorway beams.
Search terms used:
"mud house" door Afghanistan
"'small doors'" mud
"mud building" door Afghanistan
"traditional mud homes 'short door'"
"traditional mud homes 'low door'"
"traditional mud homes"
"origins mud buildings"
"mud buildings 'small doors'"
I hope this information is satisfactory. If not, please let me know
before giving a rating for this answer, and I will try another search.
Regards,
nancylynn-ga |
