Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Human Terrain...

The military concept of human terrain has more significants to me than just the integration of anthropology and human geography. It also seems to reflect a spiritual element that our current society has lost. It's a method of developing social structure and concepts based on the complexities of the immediate biosphere. This can be seen as the method of thought that sustained or most earliest ancestors for many many generations.

My initial research began on two topics when initially assigned in Afghanistan, one was to understand the function of the human terrain element in the information dominance center and two, to explore more fully the anthropologist concepts on tribal structure. What was apparent to me, due to my background in graphic design, was that their are many historical symbols even in our own culture that originate in our immediate biosphere. My interest was the wonder of a more profound connection that may influence our perception of these symbols.

This led to one more field of study that fits into a concept of social influence and that began to emerge in the 1990's but is linked to the influence of the British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his book entitled The Selfish Gene (1976). The book is said to describe a concept for discussion of evolutionary principles that could explain the spread of ideas. This concept has grown through the practice of applying biological algorithms to explain the spread of knowledge and ideas in our social structure. Interesting enough is the very open distain for the spiritual that Mr. Richard Dawson publicly displays.

To try and explain this biospherical link and how it effects culture based on the perception and persistents of its symbols is to use an apology of human terrain. This communication model can be more easily recognized rather than a biological model of cell reproduction. In addition it also opens up a new direction in the study of memetics. There is a persistent symbol that permiates all cultures used to represent and understand communication and it's social implications. This symbol is also found in ancient writings and may generate a better understanding of early concepts of a human terrain. This symbol is the use of water and it's dynamic to represent human communication. Water in all its natural form and functions to understand the enigma of our existence.