Savanna
hypothesis
A
prominent component of biophilia is habitat selection. Studies
conducted in the relatively new field of environmental psychology
during the last thirty years point consistently to the following
conclusion: people prefer to be in natural environments, and
especially in savanna or parklike habitats. They lake a long depth
of view across a relatively smooth, grassy ground surface dotted
with trees and copses. They want to be near a body of water,
whether ocean. lake, river, or stream. They try to place their
habitations on a prominence, from which they can safely scan the
savanna and watery environment. With nearly absolute consistency
these landscapes are preferred over urban settings that are either
bare or clothed in scant vegetation. To a relative degree people
dislike woodland views that possess restricted depth of vision, a
disordered complexity of vegetation, and rough ground structures -
in short, forests with small closely spaced trees and dense under
growth. They want a topography and openings that improve their
line of sight.
People
prefer to look out over their ideal terrain from a secure position
framed by the semienclosure of a domicile. Their choice of home
and environs, if made freely, combines a balance of refuge for
safety and a wide visual prospect for exploration and foraging.
The
human habitat preference is consistent with the 'savanna
hypothesis", that humanity originated in the savannas and
transitional forests of Africa. Almost the full evolutionary
history of the genus Homo, including Homo sapiens and its
immediate ancestors, about two million years, was spent in or near
these habitats or others similar to them.
Edward
O. Wilson: The future of life,
Alfred
A. Knopf, New York, 2002. |
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