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How Habitat Made Us Human

John Allen

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Hardback

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English

Basic Books
01 March 2016

Society & Social Sciences; Cognition & cognitive psychology; Neurosciences

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 question: 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 not: 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) out: 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.

By: John Allen
Imprint: Basic Books
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 208mm, Width: 147mm, Spine: 29mm
Weight: 420g
ISBN: 9780465038992
ISBN 10: 0465038999
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 01 March 2016
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

John Allen is a neuroanthropologist and research scientist at the Dornsife Cognitive Neuroscience Imaging Center and the Brain and Creativity Institute at University of Southern California, where he works with Antonio Damasio. He is the coauthor of several textbooks (Biological Anthropology, Exploring Biological Anthropology, and Medical Anthropology) as well as two semi-trade books from Harvard University Press, The Omnivorous Mind and The Lives of the Brain. He lives near Lexington, Kentucky.

Reviews for Home: How Habitat Made Us Human

PRAISE FOR HOME [A] well-presented natural history... The author guides readers through unfamiliar territory by looking at feelings of home as a cornerstone of human cognition, as basic perhaps as language... The perspective that Allen brings to this work makes clear that one can buy a house, but a home is built on evolutionary history, cultural traditions, technological advances, psychological factors, and personal experiences. Excellent supplementary reading for a variety of college courses, but the book's scope and accessibility make this one for general readers, too. --Kirkus Reviews I have enjoyed reading Home: It has helped me put together just what disparate factors our real estate really represents, what is its real meaning and value. --Robert Shiller, Nobel Laureate in Economics This important book by John Allen ranges from prehistory, in which the changing concept of 'home' played a major role in making us the humans we are, to modern times, in which eviction and homelessness are frequent horrors of the present. Allen thus alerts us to something we tend to overlook because we take it for granted: the central role in all our lives of our 'homes.' --George A. Akerlof, Nobel Laureate in Economics A fascinating exploration of the idea of home and of its meaning in the making of humanity. --Antonio Damasio, David Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Southern California and author of Self Comes to Mind Allen takes the reader on a delightful tour. From chimpanzee beds and Neanderthal burials to refugee angst and the comforts of the kitchen, Home presents an evolutionary view of a vital component of human happiness. --Richard Wrangham, Ruth B. Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University and author of Catching Fire