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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.

early morning view

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