Among the few matrilineal communities from around the world were the Nairs of the south-western coast, also known as the Malabar coast, of India. The system of matrilineal consanguinity and descent practiced by the Nairs was remarkable for its complex kinship organization and joint family set up, and the unique status---social and economic---it afforded to the women of the community. / These factors were reflected in the spatial morphology of the traditional Nair house, an assemblage of four blocks, called the nalukettu. The different structural identities of the tarawad institution; the comparative latitude and the bias of inheritance that women enjoyed; the codes of marriage, interaction and avoidance; and the observation of rituals, an integral part of the cosmology and temporal cycle of the system, all find expression in the layout and spatial organization. On the whole, the geometry of the Nair nalukettu was a graphic metaphor of the social and behavioral patterns of the Nair community overlaid on the Hindu way of life, as interpreted by the community. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

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