An Anthropologist on TV: Ashley Montagu and the Biological Basis of Human Nature, 1945–1960

Weidman, Nadine

doi:10.1057/9781137013224_12

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Though the National Teach-In was considered a success, Rapoport and others were unsure whether the debate format had helped the teach-ins’ goals (Frankel, 1965; Rapoport, 1965c). The debate format allowed them to get their movement on TV, one of the most influential mediums in this decade (Weidman, 2012). As a result, the National Teach-In was able to reach a much wider audience, inspiring a national discussion about U.S. foreign policy (Rapoport, 1965c, pp.…”

Section: Academics and Activists: The Vietnam Teach-in Movementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anatol Rapoport's social responsibility: Science and antiwar activism; 1960–1970.

Sanscartier¹

2023

History of Psychology

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Anatol Rapoport’s decision to leave the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor has sometimes been portrayed as an act of protest against United States involvement in the Vietnam War. However, he personally viewed this decision as an “escape from responsibility” (Rapoport, 2000, pp. 145–147). This article reviews his writings before his departure to better understand why he decided to leave. Though he came to see political organization and civil dissidence as the only effective means of opposition, his writings reveal that at one point he felt optimism about a particular form of activism rooted in his scientist role. However, as demonstrated by his debates with the “strategist” community, the limits of the antiwar teach-in movement and the results of the AAAS survey on science and values, his attempts to renegotiate the boundaries between “scientific deterrence” and “moral pacifism” seemingly struggled to overcome the constraints of professional academic discourse.

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Section: Academics and Activists: The Vietnam Teach-in Movementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anatol Rapoport's social responsibility: Science and antiwar activism; 1960–1970.

Sanscartier¹

2023

History of Psychology

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“…Both historians and participants in these debates have offered explanations for ethology's popularity among lay audiences and social scientists in the 1960s. These explanations have included the inspiring progress in ethology and biology (e.g., Cartmill, ; Degler, ), and the wish to benefit from biology's authority (Vicedo, ), the strong dislike and opposition to the overly constructivist or behaviorist picture of human beings and society prevalent in the social sciences of the era (Degler, ; Suttles, ), and the need to find a solid biological basis for human action in order to oppose reengineering of endlessly malleable human beings by totalitarian regimes in the cold war context (Weidman, ). Similarly, pressures to find a common basis for all humans were inspired by the need to oppose racial differences (e.g., Cartmill, ; Milam, ; Weidman, ).…”

Section: Inspiration and Justification From Ethologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The connection between territoriality and aggression is quite obvious to anybody familiar with the debates on human aggression and the related popularizations of the time. In recent years, there has been a growing amount of historical research on these topics (Milam, ; ; ; Weidman, ; ; Weinstein, ). Nevertheless, the complexity of various elaborations on and uses of the territorial aggression thesis has not been examined in detail, especially not in connection to environmental psychology.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contesting the “territorial aggression thesis” in environmental psychology, ca. 1965–1980

Sailo

2018

J History Behavioral Science

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In the latter part of the 1960s, the ethologically derived idea of territoriality as an explanation for human aggression became widely debated among social scientists. The instinctual basis of human territorial aggression was promoted by so-called popular ethologists and consequently embraced by lay audiences. The article examines how the emerging field of environmental psychology adopted the notion of human territoriality from ethology and made it into a part of their own research agenda. It shows how environmental psychologists were inspired by the fashion around the claimed relevance of human territoriality for the large-scale social problems, such as aggression, war and population growth. Despite of the obvious influences and comparisons between animal and human behavior, many environmental psychologists wanted to contest not only the 'territorial aggression thesis' but also the relevance of animal studies for the analysis of human behavior.

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“…Montagu also appears to have been responsible for the 1950 Statement's Kropotkinist claim that “biological studies lend support to the ethic of universal brotherhood” (Montagu, , p. 17). As Nadine Weidman argues, the concept of cooperation was central to Montagu's understanding of biology (Weidman, ). For Montagu's attitudes toward the work of Peter Kropotkin specifically, see Montagu (, p. 25), Montagu (, pp.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Race Relationships: Collegiality and Demarcation in Physical Anthropology

Collopy¹

2015

J. Hist. Behav. Sci.

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In 1962, anthropologist Carleton Coon argued in The Origin of Races that some human races had evolved further than others. Among his most vocal critics were geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky and anthropologist Ashley Montagu, each of whom had known Coon for decades. I use this episode, and the long relationships between scientists that preceded it, to argue that scientific research on race was intertwined not only with political projects to conserve or reform race relations, but also with the relationships scientists shared as colleagues. Demarcation between science and pseudoscience, between legitimate research and scientific racism, involved emotional as well as intellectual labor.

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An Anthropologist on TV: Ashley Montagu and the Biological Basis of Human Nature, 1945–1960

Cited by 8 publications

References 10 publications

Anatol Rapoport's social responsibility: Science and antiwar activism; 1960–1970.

Anatol Rapoport's social responsibility: Science and antiwar activism; 1960–1970.

Contesting the “territorial aggression thesis” in environmental psychology, ca. 1965–1980

Race Relationships: Collegiality and Demarcation in Physical Anthropology

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