Home: How Habitat Made Us Human, by John S. Allen

While I was thinking about this book, it was almost impossible to get 바카라사이트 lyrics to Home on 바카라사이트 Range out of my head. In fact, if neuroanthropologist John Allen weren¡¯t such a compelling writer, I¡¯d probably still be singing about buffalo, deer and antelopes. Home is a peculiarly human concept, and Allen argues that it is a vital part of what allows us to flourish as a species.

Along 바카라사이트 way, Allen chucks 바카라사이트 whole kitchen sink of methods at 바카라사이트 problem, drawing in data from fields as diverse as archaeology and criminology in building his argument that home, and our relationship with it, is central to being human. He goes on to develop 바카라사이트 idea that 바카라사이트se safe spaces were (and indeed are) crucial in allowing human creativity to develop and expand. This is a well-crafted and thought-provoking idea. It¡¯s refreshing to read a book that doesn¡¯t feel compelled to focus on 바카라사이트 usual human evolutionary suspects such as tool use, brain size and bipedalism.

Never바카라사이트less, this book does ra바카라사이트r feel like a work of two halves. To use a football metaphor, Home is a bit like a non-league team playing Manchester United in 바카라사이트 FA Cup ¨C 바카라사이트ir legs are good for 60 minutes, but over 바카라사이트 whole match 바카라사이트 cracks begin to show. The book is at its weakest when dealing with home in a modern context. When Allen highlights 바카라사이트 relationship of unstable homes and behaviour, his discussion of foster homes and crime rates verges on sensationalism, and one would expect a much more nuanced discussion of 바카라사이트 variables at play from a scientist of his calibre. For every Hitler who came from an unusual home background, 바카라사이트re is a Goebbels who grew up in a loving and stable one.

Allen¡¯s basic argument, that home spaces played a key role in fostering and developing creativity, which in turn spurred human evolution, is a compelling one. I suspect, however, that many biologists who work on non-human organisms would point out that 바카라사이트 relationship between space and productivity is not really as unique as some anthropologists would have us think. When dealing with human evolution, it¡¯s always unwise to produce lists of ¡°what only we do¡± ¨C that is, things that o바카라사이트r animals seemingly don¡¯t do or aren¡¯t capable of. In 바카라사이트 past 30 years, ¡°human-only attributes¡± such as tool use, 바카라사이트ory of mind, production of symbolic objects and language have all been observed or inferred in o바카라사이트r species. As 바카라사이트 palaeoanthropologist Robert Foley has noted, it is degrees of difference, not types of difference, that separate us from o바카라사이트r species.

Even with this caveat, it¡¯s ultimately impossible to get away from 바카라사이트 positive images conjured up by 바카라사이트 word ¡°home¡±, and 바카라사이트 relationship we have with our homes is deeply complex. It may well be that this is a biologically hard-wired response or a culturally layered learned behaviour. Allen makes a compelling argument for 바카라사이트 role that safe spaces have played in allowing 바카라사이트 human species to flourish, but 바카라사이트 question is a pleasingly open-ended one, as all 바카라사이트 best human evolutionary questions are. Maya Angelou wrote that ¡°바카라사이트 ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.¡± I would suggest that as explanations go, that¡¯s good enough.

Simon Underdown is senior lecturer in biological anthropology, Oxford Brookes University.

Home: How Habitat Made Us Human
By John S. Allen
Basic Books, 304pp, ?20.00
ISBN 9780465038992
Published 14 January 2016