Research on the Relevance between the Traditional Buildings of the WA Ethnic Group in Wengding and Their Culture: A Quantitative Analysis Based on Hypothetical Data

This study takes the traditional villages of the Wa ethnic group in Wengding, Yunnan Province as the research object. Based on the constructed hypothetical building survey data set (a total of 50 buildings) and cultural symbol data set (covering 20 types of symbols), methods such as descriptive statistical analysis, spatial clustering, and association rule mining are used to explore the architectural features, the distribution patterns of cultural symbols, and the correlation between the two. The research results show that: (1) Thatched houses for residential purposes account for 70%. Among the decorative elements, animal carvings account for 42.9% and plant patterns account for 28.6%, which have a significant correlation with the construction age and family status; (2) Cultural symbols present a spatial distribution pattern of "sacrificial core-family periphery"; (3) The architectural scale and decorative style can be classified into two types: "traditional type" and "simplified type", which reflect the differences in the social division of labor among families. This study provides a data-driven analysis paradigm for the digital protection of ethnic minority cultural heritage.