Posts Tagged ‘Social group’

Language, Architecture and Anthropology

Saturday, March 27th, 2010

In the past year I have become increasingly critical and curious as to why many architects insist upon, or at least have a habit of, using jargon and speaking in a superfluous manner. In my experience, this trait is particularly acute in academia, where it seems that the more convoluted and lofty you sound, the wiser you are and the better your projects or opinions are. This trend does not serve a clear purpose or hold much value in my opinion, but there are surely reasons for its prevalence.

The following paragraphs will seek to shed some light on the anthropological drivers of this behavior and the role it plays in architecture.

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The Viral Influence of Social Networks

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

This article, The Buddy System: How Medical Data Revealed Secret to Health and Happiness, was published in Wired magazine in September 2009. Two researchers began to pour over decades of health information found about the population of Framingham, MA. The study began in 1948 and has tracked the subjects’ weight for decades. A decision by the original researchers to record the names of the family and friends of each subject, done only to help track down subjects if they moved, proved to provide a wealth of information about human relationships and social networks. An amazing two-thirds of the 1948 population participated in the study, and now their children and grandchildren have as well. What they found was astonishing.

A segment of a social network

Image via Wikipedia

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Ayn Rand’s Anthropological Insights

Monday, December 7th, 2009

In the introduction to her seminal work The Fountainhead, Rand comments that in her opinion the greatest failing of man is the loss of the spirit of youth, of giving up. She writes:

“Then all of these [men] vanish into the vast swamp of their elders who tell them persistently that maturity consists of abandoning one’s own mind; security, of abandoning one’s values; practicality, of losing self-esteem. Yet a few hold on and move on, knowing that the fire is not to be betrayed, learning how to give it shape, purpose and reality.”

The Fountainhead

Image via Wikipedia

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