ABSTRACT
To understand the form and function of a lighthouse fully, it is useful to consider the mental model-making that so intrigues psychologists, cognitive scientists and anthropologists. Every lighthouse embodies the cultural history and identity of a community and the place in which it is located. While the physical form of the lighthouse and its illuminating beam are the features that preoccupy the popular imagination, lighthouses have made another important contribution to marine communities. As new technologies have replaced lighthouses as navigational aids, many have acquired a new lease of life by emphasising their role as local identity markers. The great majority of places with built objects that embody community or national identity sell similar kinds of material culture. A house homologously becomes the domestic 'body' of the family; landscapes acquire arms, shoulders, necks; roads have legs; rivers and harbours have mouths.
