784
Bernard Juillerat
Anthropos 68. 1973
By a simple examination of the plan one can draw conclusions on some charac
teristics of social organization: a strong sexual discrimination (separated dormitories,
central zone and verandah prohibited for women), compensated, however, by the family
life in the pddsomo; it is a double-faced structure, with one part of the patrilineal group
subdivided into groups of nuclear families, communicating with each other (in the
paasomo), and the other part of the group taking sex as a dichotomous criterium (in the
part on piles) and unable to communicate with each other; the dominant and central
position of the men (central dormitory, exterior verandah, and interior gallery) is opposed
by a lateral and inferior position of the women (lateral dormitories, closer to the ground);
this opposition is the architectural expression of the patrilineality and virilocality of the
Biami.