The Human Imperative

Columbia University Press, 1972. First Edition. hardcover. Very Good. 5x0x8. Columbia University Press, 1972, Hardcover, 185 pp. First Edition. In very good condition/ NO dust jacket. Grey cloth covered boards with blue lettering on spine. Light bumping and scuffing to edges of covers. Binding tight. A 3 page review of the book by Gloria Levitas, Dept of Anthropology, Queens College, CUNY is pasted on to the front paste-down. Previous owner's name in ink on front free end paper. Otherwise pages are clean and unmarked. NOT Ex-Library. NO remainder marks. [Excerpts from review by Gloria Levitas] In his introduction to The Human Imperative, Dr. Alexander Allan, a cultural anthropologist with a thorough grounding in Darwinian principles of evolution, characterizes his book as "a defense of man agains strict biological determinism. . . a defense of anthropology against the claim that it is anti-Darwinian and anti-scientific." An eloquent and well-reasoned critique of the three leading spokesmen for biological determinism - Robert Audrey, Konrad Lorenz and Desmond Morris - this informative volume offers a badly needed antidote to the kind of thinking that would replace political and economic reforms with drugs or genetic controls. By offering simple answers to complex problems, Ardrey, Lorenz, and Morris have bemused, bewildered, and often convinced sociologically naive audiences that human behavior can best be understood as the product of instinct or of rigid biological programs. As the star of biological determinism has risen, its bright light has dazzled and blinded readers to the diversity of human cultures, the openness of human behavior and to the inadequacy of reductionist theories that presume to explain this diversity in terms of a single cause. Dr. Alland points out, moreover, that if human nature is to blame for warfare and violence and for the exploitation of one group of men by another, then human institutions and the men who make them cannot be responsible. From this it follows that political action, and social and economic reforms are useless. We must either accept our "evil" nature or expend our energies on altering genetic patterns and hormonal systems rather than human institutions. The true nature of human adaptation that produces the environments to which it then must adapt is successfully obscured by such thinking. . . In the final, brilliant chapter of The Human Imperative. Dr. Alland presents his own view of man - derived from extensive comparative knowledge of human cultures - together with a brief summary of current theory in anthropology The research indicates that man is a relatively open kind of animal with potentials for both aggressive and cooperative behavior. The degree to which either of these potentials is developed depends largely on the nature of society. And the nature of society in turn is a product of historical, cultural, and environmental forces. Neither ape nor angel, man inhabits an environment that is largely the result of his own behavior and beliefs. It is man who is responsible for his institutions and it is he who must learn how to direct his talents towards greater knowledge and understanding of the nature laws to which is culture is a response. As Dr. Alland points out, "the cultural possibilities are infinite. Whether or not man will come to terms with himself and his environment remains to be seen.