Abstract
Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus represents one of the most influential attempts to transcend classical dualisms such as structure and agency. Nevertheless, one of the major theoretical ambiguities surrounding habitus lies in the fact that, despite Bourdieu’s emphasis on the socialized body, he does not clearly specify the mediating mechanisms through which social structures are transformed into bodily experiences and subsequently into cognitive dispositions. Drawing upon the theory of embodied cognition, one of the leading approaches in contemporary cognitive science, and employing the distinction between hard embodiment and soft embodiment, this article revisits Bourdieu’s influential essay The Kabyle House or the World Reversed as a key text for understanding the formation of habitus. The study seeks to demonstrate how architecture, spatial organization, rituals, bodily orientations, metaphors, proverbs, and naming practices within Kabyle society collectively contribute to the formation and reproduction of habitus as a cognitive ecosystem. The research adopts an interpretive-analytical methodology based on a conceptual re-reading of Bourdieu’s text through the lens of cognitive sociology and embodied cognition. The findings indicate that the Kabyle house should not be understood merely as an architectural space or a symbolic system. Rather, it constitutes a cognitive-cultural ecosystem in which the material environment, lived bodily experience, and systems of meaning simultaneously participate in the production and reproduction of habitus. Within this framework, hard embodiment operates through the repetition of practices, bodily techniques, rituals, and spatial orientations, while soft embodiment functions through language, metaphor, naming practices, and symbolic systems, thereby stabilizing habitus at a pre-reflective level. The principal contribution of this article lies in its reinterpretation of habitus from the perspective of embodied cognition and its reformulation as a cognitive ecosystem. This reinterpretation suggests that habitus is not simply the product of the internalization of social structures; rather, it emerges from the continuous interaction among the body, the material environment, and symbolic systems. In doing so, the study opens new explanatory possibilities for reconsidering classical sociological concepts in light of contemporary developments in the cognitive sciences.
Keywords: Pierre Bourdieu, Hard and Soft Embodiment, Cognitive Sociology, The Kabyle House, Embodied Cognition, Habitus.

1. Introduction
Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus occupies a central place in contemporary sociological theory. Habitus refers to durable dispositions through which individuals perceive, evaluate, and act within the social world. Through habitus, social structures are internalized and reproduced in everyday practices, making it a key concept for explaining social continuity. Yet, the mechanisms through which social structures become embodied remain insufficiently specified, particularly regarding the relationship between bodily experience, cultural meanings, and material environments.
Recent developments in embodied cognition provide new tools for addressing this issue. These approaches emphasize that cognition emerges through interactions among the body, the environment, and cultural systems rather than being confined to the brain. From this perspective, cultural learning and social reproduction are deeply rooted in embodied practices and environmental engagement.
This study revisits Bourdieu’s theory through a cognitive-cultural framework grounded in embodied cognition. By introducing the distinction between hard embodiment and soft embodiment, it examines how cultural structures become sedimented in bodily practices and symbolic systems. Focusing on Bourdieu’s analysis of the Kabyle house, the article argues that habitus can be understood as a cognitive ecosystem emerging from the interaction of bodies, environments, and cultural meanings.

2. Materials and Methods
This study adopts a theoretical and analytical methodology based on conceptual analysis and interpretive rereading. Its primary source is Bourdieu’s essay The Kabyle House or the World Reversed, which examines how architectural structures, spatial divisions, and symbolic classifications reproduce broader cultural patterns.
To reinterpret this analysis, the study draws on embodied cognition, extended mind theory, and cognitive sociology, all of which emphasize that cognition is distributed across bodies, artifacts, and environments. Combining these perspectives with Bourdieu’s framework, the research develops the concepts of hard embodiment and soft embodiment.
Hard embodiment refers to bodily and material dimensions of cultural learning, including bodily techniques, habitual gestures, spatial orientations, and interactions with objects and spaces. Soft embodiment refers to symbolic and semantic dimensions such as language, metaphors, classifications, and narratives through which individuals interpret experience. Together, these concepts provide a framework for explaining the embodied and cognitive foundations of habitus.

3. Data
Although theoretical in nature, the study draws on Bourdieu’s descriptions of the Kabyle house and related sociological literature as its primary analytical data. These texts provide detailed accounts of spatial organization, ritual practices, symbolic classifications, and everyday activities, allowing an examination of how cultural structures become embedded in bodily practices and material environments.
Bourdieu shows that the Kabyle house is organized around symbolic oppositions such as male/female, light/dark, high/low, and culture/nature. These oppositions are materially expressed through spatial arrangements, linking particular spaces to specific activities, roles, and meanings. Everyday movement within the house therefore becomes a process through which cultural classifications are enacted and internalized.
From the perspective of hard embodiment, the spatial structure of the house organizes bodily movement and daily practices. Through repeated interaction with structured spaces, individuals acquire bodily dispositions consistent with the cultural order. From the perspective of soft embodiment, symbolic meanings, metaphors, and cultural narratives provide interpretive frameworks that reinforce these practices. Together, material arrangements and symbolic systems shape cognitive and bodily experience.

4. Discussion
The analysis demonstrates that cultural structures are reproduced through the interaction of bodily practices, material environments, and symbolic systems. The distinction between hard embodiment and soft embodiment clarifies how these dimensions contribute to the formation of habitus.
Hard embodiment highlights the role of architecture, spatial arrangements, and everyday bodily routines in transmitting cultural knowledge. Individuals learn cultural patterns not only through explicit instruction but also through repeated engagement with structured environments. Soft embodiment emphasizes symbolic meanings, linguistic categories, and cultural narratives that guide interpretation and organize experience.
Taken together, these dimensions suggest that habitus emerges from the interaction of bodily experience and symbolic meaning. The Kabyle house can therefore be understood as a cognitive-cultural ecosystem in which architecture, bodily practice, and cultural classification form an integrated system. This reinterpretation expands Bourdieu’s theory by emphasizing the cognitive and ecological dimensions of habitus and aligns sociological analysis with contemporary developments in embodied cognition and cognitive anthropology.

5. Conclusion
This study sought to reinterpret the concept of habitus within a cognitive–cultural framework informed by embodied cognition. By introducing the analytical distinction between hard embodiment and soft embodiment, the research provided a conceptual model for understanding how cultural structures become embodied and reproduced in everyday practice.
Through a theoretical rereading of Bourdieu’s analysis of the Kabyle house, the study demonstrated that habitus is not merely the internalization of social structures but the product of ongoing interactions among bodily practices, spatial environments, and symbolic meaning systems. The Kabyle house functions as a cognitive ecosystem in which architectural forms, bodily movements, and symbolic classifications jointly shape social dispositions.
The distinction between hard and soft embodiment allows for a more nuanced understanding of cultural transmission. Hard embodiment captures the material and bodily mechanisms through which cultural patterns become ingrained in the body, while soft embodiment highlights the symbolic and semantic structures that guide interpretation and meaning making. Together, these dimensions reveal that cultural reproduction operates simultaneously at bodily, environmental, and cognitive levels.
By integrating sociological theory with insights from embodied cognition, this research contributes to bridging the gap between social theory and cognitive science. It also opens new avenues for analyzing how built environments, material culture, and bodily practices participate in the formation of social dispositions. Future research may further explore how different cultural environments function as cognitive ecosystems that shape the development of habitus in diverse social contexts.