An Interpretation of the Sense for Loess and the Attitudes toward Dwelling Houses ― About dwellers of Chinese 'traditional' cave dwelling houses (Yao-Dong) in northern Shaanxi Province, China―

摘要

The purpose of this paper is, using the ethnographic data gotten by fieldwork, to inter-subjectively interpret the sense for loess as the natural environment and the attitudes toward the dwelling houses as the living environment, that the dwellers of Chinese "traditional" cave dwelling houses (Yao-Dong) in northern Shaanxi Province (Shaanbei) have. In conclusion, it can be said that the loess occupy the biggest part of the environmental elements and it has two sides. Moreover, Yao-Dong in the rural region of Shaanbei can be said an existence as follows: though it is unified with "the Maternal Yellow Land" which has two sides and that part is used as main material, it gives the people a feeling of relief that the people are separated from it and are hold gently, and it equips both eternity and routine. In other words, we can interpret Yao-Dong itself also includes one of two sides which a maternal image has, and it is expected so. Furthermore, I discussed about the attitudes toward Yao-Dong, which is reproduced with changing by the influence of "modernization".