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Home: How Habitat Made Us Human
A leading anthropologist studies the science behind "feeling at home" to show us how home made us human
Home is where the heart is. Security, comfort, even love, are all feelings that are centered on the humble abode. But what if there is more to the feeling of being at home? Neuroanthropologist John S. Allen believes that the human habitat is one of the most important products of human cognitive, technological, and cultural evolution over the past two million years. In Home , Allen argues that to "feel at home" is more than just an expression, but reflects a deep-seated cognitive basis for the human desire to have, use, and enjoy a place of one's own.
Allen addresses the very basic How did a place to sleep become a home? Within human evolution, he ranks house and home as a signature development of our species, as it emerged alongside cooperative hunting, language, and other critical aspects of humanity. Many animals burrow, making permanent home bases, but primates, generally speaking, do most wander, making nests at night wherever they might find themselves. This is often in home territory, but it isn't quite home. Our hominid ancestors were wanderers, too -- so how did we, over the past several million years, find our way home? To tell that story Allen will take us through evolutionary anthropology, neuroscience, the study of emotion, and modern sociology. He examines the home from the inside (of our heads) homes are built with our brains as much as with our hands and tools. Allen argues that the thing that may have been most critical in our evolution is not the physical aspect of a home, but developing a feeling of defining, creating, and being in a home, whatever its physical form. The result was an environment, relatively secure against whatever horrors lurked outside, that enabled the expensive but creative human mind to reach its full flowering. Today, with the threat of homelessness, child foster-care, and foreclosure, this idea of having a home is more powerful than ever.
In a clear and accessible writing style, Allen sheds light on the deep, cognitive sources of the pleasures of having a home, the evolution of those behaviors, and why the deep reasons why they matter. Home is the story about how humans evolved to create a space not only for shelter, but also for nurturing creativity, innovation, and culture -- and why "feeling at home" is a fundamental aspect of the human condition.
Home is where the heart is. Security, comfort, even love, are all feelings that are centered on the humble abode. But what if there is more to the feeling of being at home? Neuroanthropologist John S. Allen believes that the human habitat is one of the most important products of human cognitive, technological, and cultural evolution over the past two million years. In Home , Allen argues that to "feel at home" is more than just an expression, but reflects a deep-seated cognitive basis for the human desire to have, use, and enjoy a place of one's own.
Allen addresses the very basic How did a place to sleep become a home? Within human evolution, he ranks house and home as a signature development of our species, as it emerged alongside cooperative hunting, language, and other critical aspects of humanity. Many animals burrow, making permanent home bases, but primates, generally speaking, do most wander, making nests at night wherever they might find themselves. This is often in home territory, but it isn't quite home. Our hominid ancestors were wanderers, too -- so how did we, over the past several million years, find our way home? To tell that story Allen will take us through evolutionary anthropology, neuroscience, the study of emotion, and modern sociology. He examines the home from the inside (of our heads) homes are built with our brains as much as with our hands and tools. Allen argues that the thing that may have been most critical in our evolution is not the physical aspect of a home, but developing a feeling of defining, creating, and being in a home, whatever its physical form. The result was an environment, relatively secure against whatever horrors lurked outside, that enabled the expensive but creative human mind to reach its full flowering. Today, with the threat of homelessness, child foster-care, and foreclosure, this idea of having a home is more powerful than ever.
In a clear and accessible writing style, Allen sheds light on the deep, cognitive sources of the pleasures of having a home, the evolution of those behaviors, and why the deep reasons why they matter. Home is the story about how humans evolved to create a space not only for shelter, but also for nurturing creativity, innovation, and culture -- and why "feeling at home" is a fundamental aspect of the human condition.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published December 29, 2015
12 people are currently reading
340 people want to read
About the author
John S. Allen
23 books8 followersLibrarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 2, 2018
This books is about a psychological perspective on home. While it is an interesting subject, I felt that the chapters I read more nothing more than common sense. There are so many questions that could make a book more pleasant to read. What did people of the past think of home? How did the concept change its meaning? How do perceptions of home differ across cultures? What will be the future of homes?
- Building and living in houses has helped us humans and some of our ancestors survive and reproduce successfully. In a sense then, houses, or the ability to build and use them, are an adaptation, as we say in evolutionary science.
- homesickness. This was widely acknowledged and even expected; medical practice of the time recognized homesickness as a potentially dangerous and primary form of mental illness.
- Home is not just a building or a shelter, but a vehicle for carrying emotions and status.
- Their survey showed that on a single night in January 2013 there were 610,042 homeless people,
- this book, I have made the argument that there is a collection of emotions and cognitive processes that contribute to our feeling at home.
- our cognition. In sum, home is about maintaining and enhancing our well-being. Improving home—feeling better at home—can improve lives.
- Building and living in houses has helped us humans and some of our ancestors survive and reproduce successfully. In a sense then, houses, or the ability to build and use them, are an adaptation, as we say in evolutionary science.
- homesickness. This was widely acknowledged and even expected; medical practice of the time recognized homesickness as a potentially dangerous and primary form of mental illness.
- Home is not just a building or a shelter, but a vehicle for carrying emotions and status.
- Their survey showed that on a single night in January 2013 there were 610,042 homeless people,
- this book, I have made the argument that there is a collection of emotions and cognitive processes that contribute to our feeling at home.
- our cognition. In sum, home is about maintaining and enhancing our well-being. Improving home—feeling better at home—can improve lives.
August 31, 2020
[Note: I stumbled upon an "advance uncorrected proof" copy of this in my neighborhood 'take a book, leave a book' library, so the review may not be entirely applicable.]
I had never heard the term "neuroanthropologist" before so the use of that term to describe the author of this book first caught my eye. The book is an interesting read into how the psychologists concept of "home" came about for humans as a species. The author compares human historical and modern practices of home-building with the nesting behaviors exhibited in many of our close primate relatives. I erroneously thought the book may have a more prescriptive bent to it. While I may not have gained any hard recommendations for improving a house (i.e. via a different room flow or feng shui), I enjoyed learning more about the neurological theoretical impetuses behind the different rooms in a house and what separates house from "home." Certainly an important distinction in current conditions of the world.
I had never heard the term "neuroanthropologist" before so the use of that term to describe the author of this book first caught my eye. The book is an interesting read into how the psychologists concept of "home" came about for humans as a species. The author compares human historical and modern practices of home-building with the nesting behaviors exhibited in many of our close primate relatives. I erroneously thought the book may have a more prescriptive bent to it. While I may not have gained any hard recommendations for improving a house (i.e. via a different room flow or feng shui), I enjoyed learning more about the neurological theoretical impetuses behind the different rooms in a house and what separates house from "home." Certainly an important distinction in current conditions of the world.
March 9, 2020
I've been trying to approach nonfiction to further my academic work as an architect, and this was a refreshing perspective on the matter of home (which you would think architects perceived as a complex thing that goes beyond the physical, but alas...).
The narration is easy, away from the twisty language of most academic papers, which lent itself to long reading sessions over the taxing reading of articles and abstracts.
However, that might also be what kept this from being a perfect book to reccomend to my peers; it feels like you can't quite quote it, but that might be my bias speaking.
The narration is easy, away from the twisty language of most academic papers, which lent itself to long reading sessions over the taxing reading of articles and abstracts.
However, that might also be what kept this from being a perfect book to reccomend to my peers; it feels like you can't quite quote it, but that might be my bias speaking.
July 7, 2019
Tedious, repetitive, scattered and boring. Disappointing, because I read a review when it first came out that made it sound very interesting and I went to the trouble of (finally) tracking down a copy from a used-book dealer. I should probably declare it DNF, because I kept falling asleep.
September 10, 2017
An interesting natural history examining the concept of home in the contexts of anthropology, economics, evolution, and psychology.
January 21, 2016
Slightly choppy but still an interesting overview of the different aspects of what ultimately makes a house a home.
February 27, 2016
This was an interesting book that prompted several good conversations around the dinner table.
August 27, 2016
Surprise revelation: gorillas make nests.
Read
December 30, 2016Unfortunately uneven, redundant, and generally unpersuasive.
Read
April 8, 2016392.36019 A4274 2015
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews