Heartwarming by Hans Rocha Ijzerman

Author:Hans Rocha Ijzerman [Ijzerman, Hans Rocha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-09-29T00:00:00+00:00

From genes to coffee to technology

Galileo invented the thermometer in 1593. This led to thermometer measurements being used to measure human body temperature, as was first explained by the Venetian physician Santorio Santorio in his 1614 publication of Ars de Statica Medicina (The Art of Statistical Medicine). Frequently reprinted and reread by generations of physicians, Santorio’s book provided body-temperature measurements that physicians could use as a comparison to their patients. It became clear that body temperature was an important part of physiology and had a critical bearing on health. Eventually, physicians reached the conclusion that healthy body temperature was pegged to a very narrow range that had to be maintained regardless of ambient temperature. In this realization we can find the emergence of a cultural, cognitively based understanding of thermoregulation’s importance. As the theory of evolution was progressively elaborated over the years following the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871), it was speculated that endothermy (an animal’s ability to maintain a metabolically viable temperature through its own metabolic heat energy rather than relying on ambient heat) may be one of the most important factors organizing evolution.

Fine. But how did we get from sleeping together to keep warm to creating the immense complexity of modern society to keep warm?

Let’s return briefly to my two favorite coffee places, Native and Brûlerie des Alpes. Both are gezellig, offering the social and emotional “warmth” that feels (to me) a lot like Christmas with the family and also provides a connection with the larger but still local community. The gezellig climate of the two places is greatly enhanced by the attitude and behavior of the owners, the look and feel of the places, and the kind of people who are attracted to these establishments—a diverse crowd who likely share a desire to experience social warmth and a good cup of coffee or tea.

Let’s not forget that both Native and Brûlerie des Alpes are built around those “hot beverages” that The Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper identified as the essential elixir of “social protocol.” As we have seen, a number of experiments, including some of my own, confirm that merely holding a hot beverage has observable and measurable effects on socially meaningful emotions and perceptions. If, as Bob Dylan sang, “you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows,” neither do you need a psychologist to tell you that a cup of hot coffee or tea can make you feel good—or at least better. You also don’t need a psychologist or an environmental scientist or an anthropologist to tell you that the feeling is real—that is, physiological, not just something a “pilot” in your head tells you. Drinking your favorite hot beverage is just satisfying.

The satisfaction may be rooted in a basic biological need for thermoregulation, but let’s consider the levels of cultural complexity involved in delivering that satisfaction, especially in the context of a gezellig coffee house.

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