Some Further Thoughts on Culture and Environment

I begin with a recent book Culture, Architecture, and Design that summarizes my work on culture-environment relations. Three of its importantgeneral points are discussed and some possible misconceptions clarified (e.g. that culture is the only, or most important, variable). Some other points are elaborated and developed, and a number of important new developments, concepts, findings and ideas introduced from a number of relevant sciences. In this connection I reiterate the importance of Environment Behavior Studies-EBS being a science, hence developing explanatory theory and, consequently the importance of keeping up with a large number of disciplines beyond those with which EBS started. The relevance of those may not be apparent at first, but becomes apparent at some level of abstraction. Among new topics introduced are the potential role of culture in nonresidential environments (so far not much discussed), the question of cultural identity and the possible role of scale in both. The utility of dismantling for a number of the topics introduced is re-emphasized. Among important new concepts I emphasize human universals, the evolution of culture, the role of niche construction and the handicap principle (costly signaling), rule systems (and simulation) and their implications for studying culture-environment relations.

Rapoport, Amos. "Some Further Thoughts on Culture and Environment," in ArchNet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research, vol. 2, issue 1 (2008).

Amos Rapoport