Power Point file

E.O. Wilson: Three Reasons Why E.O. Wilson is Considered Taboo in Anthropology? By: Francisco Quinones 1

A (VERY) Brief History of the Split: Anthropology & Sociology

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A Brief History of the Split (Cont’) 

1830 Auguste Comte (founder of sociology) writes, “The Course of Positive Philosophy”. 

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Montesquieu (early 18th).

First professional anthropologists 1865 – L. H. Morgan “Houses and House-life of the American Aborigines”. 

Franz Boas (1899 – Columbia). 3

A Brief History of the Split (Cont’)

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Sociology: 

“Social physics” 

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Focus on search for general (Newtonian-like) laws

Progressive Developmentalism

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Anthropology: 

“Historical

Particularism” 

Focus on particular groups (cultural relativism)

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A (VERY) Brief History of Social Evolution & Eugenics

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A Brief History of S. Evolution & Eugenics (Cont’) 

Comtean Positivism 

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Herbert Spencer 

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Progressive Developmentalism (Unilineal cultural evolution & chain of being). Science as best suited to guide humanity toward achievement “infinite perfectibility” of human race. Combines Malthusian principles (exponential population growth & finite resources) with laissezfaire = “Survival of the Fittest”.

Social Evolution 

Combines above with Comtean Postivism & Darwinian Natural Selection = Eugenics. 

(Gould 129,136,172) 6

Eugenics in America: A Yale Study 

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Forced sterilization was once legal in 18 U.S. States, and most states with eugenics laws allowed people to be sterilized without their consent by leaving the decision to a third party. Sterilization laws had authorized the neutering of more than 40,000 people classed as insane or “feebleminded” in 30 states by 1944. Another 22,000 underwent sterilization between the mid1940s and 1963, despite weakening public support and revelations of nazi atrocities. “Germany is perhaps the most progressive nation in restricting fecundity among the unfit,” editors of the New England Journal of Medicine wrote in 1934, a year after Hitler became chancellor.  Boasian school (Margaret Mead) takes up fight to disprove Social Evolutionary theory. 7

E.O. Wilson & The Future of Eugenics 

Epigenetic Rules as Normalizing Modern Social Behavior  

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Consilience pg 210 Diagrams

Sociobiology as a tool for normalizing future eugenic projects. 

Eugenics can be defined as a strategy of trying to orchestrate human evolution through programs aimed at encouraging the transmission of 'desirable' traits and discouraging the transmission of 'undesirable' ones. 8

References: (Texts & Journals) 

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Bohannan, Paul. High points in Anthropology. Knoff. New York: 1973. Evans-Pritchard. A History of Anthropological Thought. Basic Books. New York: 1981. Gould, Stephen J. The Mismeasure of Man. Norton & co. New York: 1981. “Genes uber Alles” in Time Magazine. V108 Dec 13, pp 93-K7 (1976 ). Turner, Johnathan H. The Emergence of Sociological Theory. Wadsworth publishing co. Boston: 1995. Wilson, Edward O. “What is sociobiology” in Society. V15 no6 pp10-14 (1978). Wilson, Edward O. Consilience: the unity of knowledge. Vintage books. New York: 1998.

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References: (Web Sites) 

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http://wupa.wustl.edu/record/archive/1998/02-1998/2866.html (4/1/02). http://wwwunix.oit.umass.edu/~cscpo/eowilson.htm (3/20/02). http://peace.saumag.edu/faculty/Kardas/Courses/ GPWeiten/C1Intro/Sociobiology.html (4/5/02). http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNe ws/eugenics_000214.html (4/2/02). http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/index.html (3/28/02). http://www.csu.edu.au/learning/ncgr/gpi/odyssey/ dolly-cloning/eugenics.html (4/5/02). 10