On Organism & its Habitat
The concept of a 'body' is central to understanding of the 'habitat' it creates for itself. As we know, organisms in the process of creating their own living environment, are merely responding to their respective bodies. (a bird makes a nest to contain itself, a termite makes a hill to contain a colony of its members) The environment is thus a response generated to and through the physical attributes of their own body, as well as is a product of their own capabilities and limitations. The habitat they produce thus, is a map of their body, since it indexes these processes. The body of the organism is thus inseparable from the study of their habitat. In other words, both, the organism and the habitat form a system in itself.
Can we understand the way organisms make their habitat as a cultural process? I use the term culture to hint at the 'practice' of building by animals. And it is in this spirit that we constantly contest the word 'natural' - that, if the spider (as a body) creates an appropriate response for itself as a web, or a termite as a hill using the materials that are available and amenable to them, why should the building of a house by a human being (as a body) be considered man-made? In other words, both are as natural, since both are created by living organisms. It is for this very reason that we have avoided the use of the term 'natural' in our brief, as well as discourse.
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Discussions during first AD module, SEA.
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Poster image below, from the Bienecke Library Archives, Yale University.
1 comment:
Surprisingly, I do not see the word 'evolution' being used anywhere in your post. The dwellings that living organisms create for themselves are the result of an evolutionary process. For example, spiders (arachnids) evolved from six legged creatures (insects) by developing two extra legs and the ability to produce silk and spin webs. That very ability, is, in fact, what makes the spider a spider - and so on and so forth. The same could be true for any other living thing that has evolved certain skills to create a micro environment for themselves.
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