Misplaced Pages

#512487

44-507: The Territorial Imperative is the second book in Ardrey's Nature of Man Series ; it is preceded by African Genesis (1961) and followed by The Social Contract (1970) and The Hunting Hypothesis (1976). It was illustrated by Ardrey's wife, the South African actress and illustrator Berdine Ardrey (née Grunewald) . Ardrey dedicated The Territorial Imperative to Henry Eliot Howard , who

88-641: A 1971 Penthouse interview, asserted "I don't think human beings are that bad at all—I think they are absolutely marvellous. We've got to stop kidding ourselves, stop lying to ourselves, living with a delusion about ourselves." A 1966 review by Edmund Leach said Ardrey was "a mine of scientific-sounding misinformation" and his book was "noisy and foolish". A 1967 review by Patrick Bateson said "The arguments on which he bases his conclusions are shot through with such elementary mistakes, and his definitions are so loose, that he will surely mislead anyone who takes him seriously . . . Ardrey seems to be scarcely aware of

132-489: A central interpreter of Levi-Strauss' work, producing several introductory works on Levi-Strauss' theoretical perspective, Leach considered himself "at heart, still a 'functionalist'". His book Lévi-Strauss was translated into six languages and ran three editions. His turn of phrase produced memorable quotes, such as this on Lévi-Strauss: "The outstanding characteristic of [Lévi-Strauss's] writing, whether in French or English,

176-690: A major influence on the theoretical thinking of Levi-Strauss, leading to his structural anthropology. In 1972 he received a personal chair. He was elected provost of King's College, Cambridge in 1966 and retired in 1979; President of the Royal Anthropological Institute (1971–1975); a Fellow of the British Academy (from 1972) and was knighted in 1975. Leach spanned the gap between British structural-functionalism (exemplified by Alfred Radcliffe-Brown and Malinowski), and French structuralism (exemplified by Levi-Strauss). Despite being

220-404: A series of articles for The Reporter . At the same time he renewed an acquaintance with prominent geologist Richard Foster Flint and investigated claims made by Raymond Dart about a specimen of Australopithecus africanus . This trip would initiate the decades of work Ardrey completed in the field of human evolution. The central thesis of African Genesis: A Personal Investigation into

264-454: Is really there." A 1970 review by C. E. S. Franks said "however well written they may be, his books are neither scientific works nor the works of a scientist. Robert Ardrey has misunderstood two of the basic concepts of the new biology, "aggression" and "territory", and has misapplied them in discussing human society". The Territorial Imperative was widely read and exerted a cultural influence. It quickly became an international bestseller and

308-540: Is that it is difficult to understand; his sociological theories combine baffling complexity with overwhelming erudition. Some readers even suspect that they are being treated to a confidence trick". Leach's work on Lévi-Strauss is often relied on by other authors. For example, in Richard Wrangham 's (2009) book Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human , he relies on Leach in describing Lévi-Strauss's analysis of cooking in relation to human culture. Leach's first book

352-720: The Kachin in the Kachin Hills area of Burma, and over several months master their language while staying at Hpalang. His studies were abruptedly interrupted by the outbreak of World War II , and he lost most of the manuscript material he had gathered during this period. Leach then joined the Burma Army, from the fall of 1939 to summer 1945, where he achieved the rank of Major. During his time in Burma, Leach acquired superior knowledge of Northern Burma and its many hill tribes. He served as commander of

396-495: The Animal Origins and Nature of Man was that early man evolved from carnivorous African predecessors, and not, as was then the scientific consensus, from Asian herbivores. It drew particularly on the scientific work of Raymond Dart and Konrad Lorenz . This thesis has been proven and is now scientific doctrine. African Genesis also challenged a key methodological assumption of the social sciences, namely that human behavior

440-579: The Evolutionary Sources of Order and Disorder is the most controversial book of the Nature of Man series. It sought to apply evolutionary thinking to the creation of social order. In particular it examined inherited characteristics' effects in determining hierarchy and inequality. Ardrey argued that, while inequality was not necessarily a social evil, it could only be justly expressed under conditions of absolute equality of opportunity. He also argued that

484-680: The Kachin irregular forces. This resulted in the publication of the "Jinghpaw Kinship Terminology: An Experiment in Ethnographic Algebra" in 1945. After he left the Army in 1946, he returned to the London School of Economics to complete his dissertation under the supervision of Raymond Firth. In spring of 1947 he received a PhD in anthropology. His 732-page dissertation was based on his time in Burma and titled Cultural change, with special reference to

SECTION 10

#1733202964513

528-642: The Kachin to make important theoretical points as it related to kinship theory. In 1953, he became a lecturer at Cambridge University , and promoted to Reader in 1957. Along with his wife, Celia, Leach spent a year from 1960 to 1961 at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Studies in Palo Alto, California. Here he met Roman Jakobson , the Russian linguist, popularizer of Saussurean structural linguistics, and

572-872: The South African anthropologist Dr. Phillip Tobias stated, "He has made an incalculable contribution to the science of human evolution. Thousands of people around the world, especially in the United States, were made aware of the fascination and the importance of studies on man's place in nature [through his writing]." The work influenced several notable figures. Stanley Kubrick cited Ardrey as an inspiration for his films 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and A Clockwork Orange (1971). The strategic analyst Andrew Marshall and U.S. Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger are known to have discussed The Territorial Imperative in connection to military-strategic thinking. Ardrey went on to publish two more books on human origins and

616-514: The anti-Ardreyites, including Ashley Montagu. ... Ashley Montagu always carefully distanced himself from what he thought were our erroneous conclusions about human aggression. We returned the favor, even calling him and his school "the Christian Scientists of anthropology" for their refusal to accept the reality of human evil: that it was an essential part of being human and could not be just wished away. We in turn were included eventually among

660-582: The business atmosphere and never again was going to sit on an office stool. He intended to return to England by way of Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railway, but increasing political turmoil in Russia convinced him otherwise. While in Beijing, Leach had a chance encounter with Kilton Stewart, a psychiatrist, former-Mormon missionary, and published author who invited him on a trip to the island of Botel Tobago off

704-452: The coast of Formosa. Before returning to England, Leach spend several months among the Yami of that island , taking ethnographic notes and studying local boat design. This work resulted in a 1937 article in the anthropology journal Man . He returned to England and studied social anthropology at the London School of Economics with Raymond Firth who introduced him to Bronisław Malinowski . He

748-478: The details of this game-changing shift in subsistence strategy. This evidence indicates that hunting evolved far earlier than some scholars had envisioned – and profoundly impacted subsequent human evolution." The Hunting Hypothesis was also one of the first books to warn about climate change as a possible existential threat to mankind. The Hunting Hypothesis, with some exceptions, was remarkably well reviewed. The famed biologist and naturalist E. O. Wilson ,

792-489: The development of weapons was a fundamental turning point in his evolution. The Territorial Imperative further explores these ideas with a special emphasis on man's distinct preoccupation with the concept of territory. It goes on to elucidate the role that plays in modern human society in phenomena such as property ownership and nation building. The Territorial Imperative caused significant scientific and popular controversy. In it Ardrey restated and developed his challenge to

836-445: The fields of paleoanthropology, ethnology, and anthropology to a wide readership." The opposition of these two viewpoints became a major theme in the social science of the time. Robin Fox , who authored The Imperial Animal (1972) with Lionel Tiger , wrote of the opposition: I was a great friend of Robert Ardrey, and had been known publicly to defend his name and honor from the assault of

880-549: The hill tribes of Burma and Assam . Later that same year, at the request of Sir Charles Arden Clark, the then Governor of Sarawak (then under British Colonial rule) and a referral by Raymond Firth, the British Colonial Social Science Research Council invited Leach to conduct a major survey of the local peoples. The resulting 1948 report, Social Science Research in Sarawak (later published in 1950),

924-820: The hold that territory has on man. In particular it demonstrates the influence of the drive to possess territory on such phenomena as property ownership and nation-building. The Territorial Imperative further developed the nascent science of ethology and increased public interest in human origins. Like African Genesis it was also an international bestseller and saw translation into dozens of languages. It influenced several notable figures. Stanley Kubrick cited Ardrey as an inspiration for his films 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange . The strategic analyst Andrew Marshall and U.S. Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger are known to have discussed The Territorial Imperative in connection to military-strategic thinking. The Social Contract: A Personal Inquiry into

SECTION 20

#1733202964513

968-475: The importance of a reasoned respect for nature, foreshadowing the environmental concerns of The Hunting Hypothesis. The Hunting Hypothesis: A Personal Conclusion Concerning the Evolutionary Nature of Man continued Ardrey's examination of the importance of inherited evolutionary traits. In particular it demonstrated the determinant force of traits that co-evolved in early man with hunting behavior. At

1012-415: The innate or instinctive attributes of human nature, and the most skilled populariser of the findings of paleo-anthropologists, ethologists, and biological experimenters." Ralph Graves claims "[Ardrey] today can claim major credit for having introduced the public to the new field of ethology, the study of animal behavior and its relationship to man." Commenting upon Ardrey's legacy on the occasion of his death,

1056-445: The interactions involved in biological processes and to know nothing of the scientific method." A 1970 review by Carroll Quigley said "Ardrey pretends to be a scientist, or at least a science reporter; but in this book there is no more science than there is in a comic strip . . . It is true that Ardrey has read a great deal about animal behavior, but he never seems to grasp what it all means, and his biases prevent him from seeing what

1100-442: The nature of man, The Social Contract: A Personal Inquiry into the Evolutionary Sources of Order and Disorder (1970) and The Hunting Hypothesis: A Personal Conclusion Concerning the Evolutionary Nature of Man (1976). He continued to publish influential works in the field of anthropology until his death in 1980. Nature of Man Series The Nature of Man Series is a four-volume series of works in paleoanthropology by

1144-472: The noted anthropologist Colin Turnbull , the acclaimed journalist Max Lerner , and the noteworthy social scientist Roger Masters , among others, all wrote effusive reviews. Antony Jay wrote that "Robert Ardrey's books are the most important to be written since the war and arguable in the 20th century." Edmund Leach Sir Edmund Ronald Leach FRAI FBA (7 November 1910 – 6 January 1989)

1188-470: The presence of inequality does not justify the domination of the weak by the strong. "Ardrey showed that in all societies at any level of the animal world, structures exist to protect the vulnerable, and that this is an evolutionary advantage as it protects diversity, diversity being essential for creativity." The Social Contract continued Ardrey's refutation of cultural determinists through interwoven analyses of animal and human behavior. It also emphasized

1232-502: The prolific playwright, screenwriter, and science writer Robert Ardrey . The books in the series were published between 1961 and 1976. The series majorly undermined standing assumptions in social sciences, leading to an abandonment of the " blank slate " hypothesis; incited a renaissance in the science of ethology ; and led to widespread popular interest in human evolution and human origins . The first work, African Genesis (1961), particularly helped revive interest in ethology, and

1276-529: The public imagination. Stanley Kubrick cited them as major influences in developing his films 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and A Clockwork Orange (1971). Robert Ardrey was a prolific playwright , screenwriter , and science writer . By the time he returned to the sciences in the 1950s, he had already had a decorated Hollywood and Broadway career, including the award of a Guggenheim Fellowship and an Academy Award nomination for best screenplay. In 1955 Ardrey travelled to Africa , where he wrote

1320-517: The reigning methodological assumption of the social sciences, that human behavior is fundamentally distinct from animal behavior. As he writes in The Territorial Imperative , "The dog barking at you from behind his master's fence acts for a motive indistinguishable from that of his master when the fence was built." Robert Wokler wrote of Ardrey's challenge to the established life sciences: What ought to be studied, according to Ardrey, are

1364-530: The relations between individuals that stem from the innate and universal attributes of animal life, whereas cultural anthropologists who detect a fundamental discontinuity between mankind and other zoological species are just impervious to the revolutionary ideas of Darwinism which have reverberated throughout all the life sciences apart from their own. In 1968, two years after the publication of The Territorial Imperative, Ashley Montagu organized fourteen scientists to write essays in opposition to Ardrey's work (and

The Territorial Imperative - Misplaced Pages Continue

1408-477: The similarly aligned work of Konrad Lorenz , On Aggression ). That volume became Man and Aggression . Montagu would eventually edit another volume in opposition to Ardrey, and the increasingly heated debate stirred popular interest in human origins. By Carmel Schrire 's account, "Ashley Montagu edited two collections of writings aimed at countering the views of both Ardrey and Konrad Lorenz. ... Despite this, Ardrey's popularity did not flag, and his writings opened

1452-471: The time of publication, it was not even commonly accepted that early man were hunters, much less that hunting behavior influenced their evolution. Following publication of Ardrey's work this thesis gained support and eventually widespread acceptance. "For decades researchers have been locked in debate over how and when hunting began and how big a role it played in human evolution. Recent analyses of human anatomy, stone tools and animal bones are helping to fill in

1496-504: The villains in his "new litany of innate depravity." And so it went. Some essays in the Montagu volume, as well as much other criticism of Ardrey's work, claimed that, because it asserted the role of instinctual aggression in determining man's behavior, his work excused aggression or saw the human as innately evil. Ardrey differed, claiming instead that an awareness of human nature was necessary to truly pursue civilization. For example, Ardrey, in

1540-479: Was Political Systems of Highland Burma (1954); it challenged the theories of social structure and cultural change. Throughout, Leach was "fiercely critical of generalisations from one society to a narrative about 'politics' in so-called 'primitive societies'". His second book was Pul Eliya, a Village in Ceylon (1961), where he directed his attention to theories of kinship as ideal systems. Leach's interest in kinship

1584-506: Was a British social anthropologist and academic. He served as provost of King's College, Cambridge from 1966 to 1979. He was also president of the Royal Anthropological Institute from 1971 to 1975. Leach was born in Sidmouth , Devon , the youngest of three children and the son of William Edmund Leach and Mildred Brierley. His father owned and was manager of a sugar plantation in northern Argentina . In 1940 Leach married Celia Joyce who

1628-577: Was a direct precursor to the Konrad Lorenz 's On Aggression (1966), Desmond Morris 's The Naked Ape (1967), Lionel Tiger 's Men in Groups (1969), and Tiger and Robin Fox 's The Imperial Animal (1971). The director of the Smithsonian Institution 's Human Origins Program Rick Potts , cited Ardrey's work as inspiring him to go anthropology. The works were wildly popular and influenced

1672-718: Was an active member of Malinowski's "famous seminar". In 1938, Leach went to Iraq (Kurdistan) to study the Kurds, which resulted in Social and Economic Organization of the Rowanduz Kurds . However, he abandoned this trip because of the Munich Crisis . He wrote: "I've got an enormous amount of ability at almost anything, yet so far I've made absolutely no use of it... I seem to be a highly organized piece of mental apparatus for which nobody else has any use" ( D.N.B. 258). In 1939 he went to study

1716-524: Was an international bestseller translated into dozens of languages. In 1962 it was a finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction. In 1969 Time magazine named African Genesis the most notable nonfiction book of the 1960s. The Territorial Imperative: A Personal Inquiry Into the Animal Origins of Property and Nations extends Ardrey's work in examining the effects of inherited evolutionary traits on human social behavior with an emphasis on

1760-416: Was distinct from animal behavior. Ardrey instead asserted that evolutionarily inherited traits were a major factor in determining human behavior. This was a hugely controversial hypothesis, though it has gained widespread acceptance today. It was a major theme that would extend throughout the Nature of Man books and continue to surround them with controversy. African Genesis was a major popular success. It

1804-576: Was noted for being one of the first to describe in detail the territorial behaviors of birds. The Territorial Imperative develops the theses originally introduced in African Genesis: A Personal Investigation into the Animal Origins and Nature of Man , which was published five years earlier. In African Genesis , Ardrey posited that man originated in Africa instead of Asia, that he is driven by inherited instincts to acquire land and defend territory, and that

The Territorial Imperative - Misplaced Pages Continue

1848-658: Was then a painter and later published poetry and two novels. They had a daughter in 1941 and a son in 1946. Leach was educated at Marlborough College and Clare College, Cambridge , where he graduated with a BA with honours in Engineering in 1932. After leaving Cambridge University, Leach took a four-year contract in 1933 with Butterfield and Swire in China, serving in Hong Kong , Shanghai , Chongqing , Qingdao , and Beijing . He found out after his contract expired that he did not like

1892-456: Was translated into dozens of languages. Ardrey's work in general, and The Territorial Imperative in particular, is often credited with arousing popular interest in ethology, anthropology, and human origins. Geoffrey Gorer, for example, in his Encounter review of The Territorial Imperative , writes: "Almost without question, Robert Ardrey is today the most influential writer in English dealing with

1936-576: Was used as a guide for many well-known subsequent anthropological studies of region. In addition to the report, Leach produced five additional publications from this field work. Upon returning from his fieldwork in Borneo, Leach became a lecturer at LSE. In 1951, Leach won the Curl Essay Prize for his essay The Structural Implications of Matrilateral Cross-Cousin Marriage, which drew on his extensive data on

#512487