摘要：Yorubas in Southwestern Nigeria, have a culture of having provisions for multiple uses - like commercial, crafts, light industrial and so on - in their residential areas. Contrary to the provisions of the master plan on which the design of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, is based, this cultural trait is noticed to be manifesting in the evolving land use pattern in the University's staff quarters. This study examines these manifestations. The approach of the study is identifying buildings that are currently being used for both residential and other uses on the base map of the staff quarters. The map is then subdivided into quadrants of equal sizes and Poisson distribution is applied to investigate the pattern of distribution of these multiple-use buildings in the study area. Investigations revealed that commercial and service activities in the staff quarters are at present arranged such that most families travel less than half a kilometer to purchase basic daily needs like bread, candles and soft drinks. Poisson distribution test reveals that these multiple-use buildings (housing the various commercial/service activities in the staff quarters) tend towards clustering. This is similar to what operates in traditional Yoruba residential quarters ('adugbos'). This research has thus been able to show that the study area is gradually being transformed to conform to Yoruba traditional communities. Recommendations are offered to integrate these findings into land use planning in the study area and in other similar places. var currentpos,timer; function initialize() { timer=setInterval("scrollwindow()",10);} function sc(){clearInterval(timer); }function scrollwindow() { currentpos=document.body.scrollTop; window.scroll(0,++currentpos); if (currentpos != document.body.scrollTop) sc();} document.onmousedown=scdocument.ondblclick=initialize LEKAN SANNI AND ADEWALE ADUNOLA 2 styles and the arrangement of spaces within and between buildings. Since people from diverse culture interact continuously in space, no culture is totally insulated from others. They continue to borrow and adapt from other cultures. This often leads to hybrids of cultures. But each culture usually maintains some cultural traits that are transmitted to the coming generations no matter the number and / or duration of contacts with other cultures. These cultural traits, especially in material terms, are easily seen as 'stamps of identification' on the parts of the residential areas in which each culture predominates. Residential areas have generated a lot of researches. Investigations have been carried out on their structure, form and composition (Aguda, 1994; Sanni, 1997). Efforts have been made to explain the level of provision of social facilities and amenities in various residential density areas (Olatubara, 1994; Sanni, 1983). Studies have also been conducted on level of living of residential areas of many Nigerian cities (Abiodun and Boateng, 1987; Ogunjumo and Olatubara 1997). Investigations have also been conducted on determinants of choice of residential areas in urban areas (Olatubara, 1994). This study intends to add to the existing literature on residential areas by seeking to provide answers to these very important questions: (i) If a set of people is accommodated in an environment designed on principles alien to their cultural background, will they ultimately adjust to the dictates of the environment or will they modify that environment to conform to their cultural dictates. (ii) To what extent will they succeed in achieving whichever option they choose. The staff residential quarters of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, are chosen as a case study. Most of the inhabitants of the study area are highly educated. This helps in reducing possible effects of illiteracy on our findings. The remaining part of this paper is divided into five. Immediately after this introduction is a review of morphological structure of Yoruba residential districts. This is followed by a review of the study area. The fourth part, the research methodology, is followed by results and discussions. In the last part, suggestions are offered to integrate research's findings into land use planning of the study area and other similar places. MORPHOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF YORUBA RESIDENTIAL DISTRICTS Yoruba race constitutes one of the major tribes in Nigeria. Found mostly in the Southwestern part of the country, and extending their natural domain to as far as Togo republic, the race has a culture that is generally noted to have significant influence on the morphological structure of their settlements. The morphological structure of Yoruba towns follows that of Ile-Ife, the oldest Yoruba city, generally acclaimed the cradle of the race. Before the advent of colonialists, Yoruba settlements were noted for their general pattern of having the King's (Oba's) palace at the centre. Very close by at the centre were the king's market and the most important place of worship. From the center, arterial roads that divided the town into quarters ('adugbos') radiated to the outskirts. Each quarter comprised an administrative unit and is in turn divided into series of compounds ("Iles"). Each quarter had a High Chief to whom all the heads of 'compounds' in his ''quarter'' were responsible, and who in turn was responsible to the king. These quarters divided the town into sectors starting from the central square toward the outskirts. They were arranged round the palace in a sort of satellite formation making each area of the town fairly homogenous. The High Chiefs of the quarters lived in their palaces very close to the centre and lesser citizens had their 'compounds' farther down towards the outskirts. The 'compound', which constituted the urban residential unit, housed members of an extended family, which formed a kind of corporate group characterized by particular common socio- economic and cultural activities. There was specialization of functions per "compound" ("compounds" of blacksmiths, of weavers and so on). In its original traditional form a traditional compound was composed of an external perimeter wall in "banco" along which were articulated a series of adjoining rooms, inward-looking, served by a verandah looking towards an open court. Colonialism with its attendant emphasis on nucleated family encouraged individuals to construct buildings for their nucleated families. Initially, these were constructed on the collapsed part of the compound ('Ile'), but later, the courtyard was filled. In this way, the perimeter wall give way and all that was left was a group of houses called "agbo-Ile" ('a group of houses') (Sanni, 1997).
关键词：Culture; cultural traits; land use pattern; residential area; Yoruba's residential district
