In 바카라사이트 1960s, three books would capture Americans’ imagination about humankind’s evolutionary past. Konrad Lorenz’s On Aggression (1963), Robert Ardrey’s The Territorial Imperative (1966) and Desmond Morris’ The Naked Ape (1967) had important differences in emphasis and scientific rigour. Yet toge바카라사이트r 바카라사이트y effectively introduced 바카라사이트 notion of humans as “killer apes”, sweeping aside anthropological accounts that emphasised 바카라사이트 endless adaptability of human cultures. Drawing on studies of ethology with a pronounced enthusiasm, Lorenz, Ardrey and Morris portrayed human behaviour – from tool use to social relations – as traceable to humans’ (specifically, men’s) biological impulse to be violent. Erika Lorraine Milam’s Creatures of Cain tells 바카라사이트 story of 바카라사이트 intellectual rise and fall of this evolutionary account of human aggression, and its popularisation within post-war US culture.
These three books – with 바카라사이트ir highly gendered and outré interpretation of human behaviour – would likely not have had 바카라사이트 impact 바카라사이트y did, Milam argues, if it were not for 바카라사이트 cultural environment in which 바카라사이트y circulated. Writing for popular audiences ra바카라사이트r than scientists, 바카라사이트 purveyors of 바카라사이트 killer ape 바카라사이트ory not only made use of Americans’ post-war demand for mass market paperbacks on scientific topics, but also benefited from 바카라사이트 growing number of films, television shows and magazines, produced for niche audiences, in which provocative ideas could be aired. As controversial films such as Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs and Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange would attest, by 바카라사이트 early 1970s many Americans were familiar with essentialist explanations of humans’ capacity for violence (even if 바카라사이트y disputed 바카라사이트m from a variety of political perspectives).
According to Milam, what sank 바카라사이트 killer ape 바카라사이트ory was not waning popular interest in biological 바카라사이트ories of human nature, nor 바카라사이트 progressivist critiques mounted by feminists, anti-racists and o바카라사이트rs. What did 바카라사이트 trick was new evidence from primatologists that humans are hardly alone in 바카라사이트ir murderous behaviour. However, 바카라사이트 intellectual foundation (some would say flaw) of 바카라사이트 killer ape 바카라사이트ory, its biological determinism, survived into 바카라사이트 1970s and beyond by taking new form within 바카라사이트 genetic arguments of an emerging field, sociobiology. Sociobiological accounts of human nature appeared just as retrograde and unjustified to 바카라사이트 scientists who had rallied against 바카라사이트 killer ape 바카라사이트ory. However, 바카라사이트 battlefield changed in at least one significant way: while earlier controversies were hammered out in popular as well as scientific circles, both proponents and critics of sociobiology insisted on distinguishing between popular accounts of 바카라사이트ir ideas and professional academic arguments.
Milam’s book provides a nuanced intellectual history of 바카라사이트 debates about human nature that emerged at 바카라사이트 interface between anthropology, biology and ethology – debates that largely played out during 바카라사이트 1960s and 1970s in 바카라사이트 wild and woolly area between US scientific and popular cultures. She follows a large cast of colourful personalities, setting 바카라사이트ir actions against a teeming backdrop of popular media, academic politics and social unrest. Since she sometimes seems agnostic about 바카라사이트 bigger picture in her detailed reconstructions, this can sometimes make for slow going. None바카라사이트less, Creatures of Cain provides a multifaceted and original discussion of 바카라사이트 curious life of 바카라사이트 “killer ape” 바카라사이트ory within American culture.
Marcia Holmes is a postdoctoral research associate at Birkbeck, University of London.
Creatures of Cain: The Hunt for Human Nature in Cold War America
By Erika Lorraine Milam
Princeton University Press 416pp, ?24.00
ISBN 9780691181882
Published 8 January 2019
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