Home

A leading anthropologist studies the science behind feeling at home to show us how home made us humanHome 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.