And science as much as any other form of culture has been involved in the attempt to preserve social order; biology in particular has long served as a useful social weapon. In the late 19th and early 20th century, American and British social darwinists found in the theory of evolution by natural selection a kind of...
Tag - sociobiology
Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, by James Jones, is a chronicle of the appalling cruelty that turned people into "subjects" for the sake of science. The men in the study were told that they had "bad blood''—but the "treatment'' they received was only aspirin and iron tonic. The PHS worked with local...
Seen in this light, sex role research is most easily explained as a social and political phenomenon, not a scientific one. Once again the scientific community has come forth with an apology for the status quo (in this case, male domination), and once again, it has done so with great success. There is no deliberate...
Political from inception, concepts of “man the hunter” and “the killer ape” are no less political in conclusion and application. They are also dishonest, speculative and often untrue. But even if “man” (never “woman”) were a hunting animal during the dawning years of our lineage, even if this hunting lifestyle had...
In an unequal set of economic relations as exist within American industry, scientists must work extremely hard to see that on matters of health all sides are considered equally. This means they will have to forge links with workers and progressive unions who are struggling over occupational health issues. They will...
By filtering the controversy about genes-and-gender research so that only one side gets through, popular magazine writers serve to shore up the status quo. In this way, mass circulation magazine coverage of genes-and-gender theory affects public policy. The notion of the "different natures" of men and women is...
As most readers of Science for the People are aware, speculations about the evolutionary and genetic bases of human behavior have stirred controversy since the publication of E.O. Wilson's Sociobiology: The New Synthesis in 1975.
1. The Rise of Social Darwinism
Hofstadter, Social Darwinism in American Thought. Boston: Beacon Press, 1955.
Zmarzlik, "Social Darwinism in Germany, Seen as an Historical Problem," Chap. 10 in Republic to Reich: The Making of the Nazi Revolution, (ed.) H. Holborn, Vintage Books; 1973, pp. 435-474.
Dear Dr. Wilson: I am a graduate student in anthropology at New York University. I purchased a copy of your text, Sociobiology, because I was anxious to study Homo sapiens from the standpoint of so eminent a scientist as yourself. This is my problem. Although I scored 760 in the verbal portion of the graduate record...
The idea that human behavior is genetically controlled is called “biological determinism.” Throughout history this ideology has been used as a justification for oppression. Women and minorities were claimed to be inferior because of biological differences that could not be changed. There has been a resurgence of this...