There is broad acceptance for the idea that family-tribal culture affects our spiritual beliefs, sexual attitudes (which also include attitudes concerning privacy), and the way in which we relate to others. Family and tribal influences also affect how we create and inhabit our personal spaces, our homes--from the choice of natural or artificial light to be perceived by the eye, to the preference of temperature to be felt by the skin, to the attitudes we have about shared and communal space.

Archologie is the active practice of remembering the family of origin, the ancestors, and the tribe. We refer to Archologie as an active practice because of the use of gestalt experiments, which allow us to give a voice to those not present as well as to inanimate objects. Archologie also uses guided visualizations and waking dreams to allow us to revisit and, in most cases, visit for the first time, the homes of our ancestors to sense and feel how they created their homes. Returning from this journey, we have a heightened sense of our origins and, therefore, who we are. From this place, we can make informed decisions about our own homes.

Some decisions might carry the quality and feeling of the ancestral space, while others will reject aspects that are no longer necessary, since we are different. In many cases, what was originally a condition created by scarcity or deprivation became the familiar and safe situation. Our ancestors survived by creating these safe places, and our debt to them is often repaid by recreating this space. Often, when we ignore the tribal influences that underlie and infuse our lives, there is a price to pay. This is not to say that we must follow the old forms, but, rather, that we must acknowledge them and the ways in which they created safety and survival.

We have come a long way in the last 500 years in the ways in which we create shelter, with most of the innovations contributing to our increased comfort occurring within the last 100 years. Where once openings to the out-of-doors were small in order to keep out cold or heat or predators, we now have the ability to utilize insulated glass enclosing conditioned space and conquer darkness with artificial light.

All of these technological advances can mask, but not change, our origins and their significance to our psyches. Our souls are imprinted with the past and the ways in which our ancestors made the way for us. We may not choose to follow that way, but we must acknowledge and honor it.