Ashley Montagu (1905–1999)

This is a sort of anthology and assay of the tragic biography of Englishman Joseph Merrick, often erroneously called John Merrick, known for his severe deformities. The collection includes the biography written by doctor benefactor Frederick Treves as well as other academic bulletins and a couple of dozen B&W photographs. Most of the images are post-mortem studies of the skeleton and casts of body parts. There is much redundancy as this material covers the same ground.

I noticed several show more reviewed criticize the author's original material here considering the role of maternal affection, or lack thereof, in Merrick's psychology. This may be the weakest portions but is also a small percentage of the content. Indeed it does strike at the heart of the matter: a life of abuse and neglect and from this emerging a gentle and artistic soul is a testament to the positive possibilities in the human experience. show less

One of the most important books about race in our time, it was one of the first to debunk claims about the "genetic inferiority" of other races. Montagu shoots down what was then common racist theory with controlled rage and pure science. I still source it anytime I get into arguements with racists about """genetic inferiority""" of other races.

The Human Connection
By Ashley Montague and Floyd Matson
Published 1979; read July, 2007

Authors discuss the universal languages of the skin, of movement, of the eyes from their perspectives as anthropologist, social biologist, and social psychologist.

Montague has also written Natural Superiority of Women: Anatomy and Physiology; Touching; Man’s Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race; On Being Human; and The Nature of Human Aggression.

Matson is the author of The Idea of Man and The Broken show more Image.

The chapters of this book include Approaching, Meeting, Signaling, Touching, Loving, Communing, Dancing, and Culture-Crossing.

I found the information current and informative. Though I take such perspective for granted, it was cutting edge when the book was written. I particularly appreciated the insights in the Dancing and Culture-Crossing chapters.

The Dancing chapter refers to the inherent biological ryhthyms of our life, individually and socially. The discussion of synchronization, orchestration, and individualization were new concepts for me to read though not new in personal experience.

“Researchers into synchrony have found that the same rhythmic interaction—what Meerloo has termed ‘cooscillation’—exists in groups of widely varying size, ranging from a nuclear family unit to an entire classroom of children spilled out on a playground.”

Edward T. Hall’s description: “At first, they looked like so many kids each doing his own thing. After a while, we noticed that one little girl was moving more than the rest. Careful study revealed that she covered the entire playground…. Gradually, we perceived that the whole group was moving in synchrony to a definite rhythm. The most active child, the one who moved about most, was the director, the orchestrator of the playground rhythm!”

In the Culture-Crossing chapter, I learned that the concept of Cultures versus Civilizations is relatively new. The concept of culture was described by Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn in the 1950’s as:

“Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquitted and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievement of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional (i.e., historically derived and selected) ideas and especially their attached values; culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, on the other as conditioning elements of further action.”
“…this fundamental idea concerning the character of culture was scarcely in existence before it was formulated by Edward Tylor in 1871 and very little circulated or understood in the social sciences until at least the 1920s.”

Prior to the acceptance of this concept of culture, the Western mind was guided by an older idea of civilization. “This grand scheme presented a typological scale of societal evolution, roughly paralleling organic evolution, which ascended steadily upward from ‘primitive’ or ‘savage’ through ‘barbarian’ to ‘high’—with the last category being virtually synonymous with ‘modern,’ and that in turn identified exclusively with ‘Western.’ There were various definitive indicators—such as logic, law, and literacy—which made it possible to distinguish superior from inferior peoples…

“Between civilized and primitive peoples, since they were of different evolutionary orders, there could be little genuine communication—although there could be commerce. What communication was possible consisted mainly of preaching to the natives, and sometimes teaching them, but not listen to or learning from them…”

This relatively recent concept of “culture” versus “civilization” is informative as to the slow assimilation into the world view of lay people, especially in the Western world.

I also learned that the mythology of “race” is also a recent development. This deeply ingrained concept seems to have had a longer life that that suggested by the authors as being born in American in the early part of the prior century “when slave-owners found themselves faced with the increasing power of the abolitionists.” I would suggest that the mythology of “race” was a natural outcome of the concept of civilization as previously discussed.

“…the issue of ‘race’ is not a scientific matter; rather it is a problem of ethics, which depends solely on the answer to the simple questions: Is this person a human being? If the answer is affirmative, then it follows that he has the inalienable right of all human beings to live his own life, unconstrained and uncategorized, finding his own limits and exploring his unique potential—experiencing life, enjoying liberty, and knowing the happiness of pursuit. And it follows that any who stand in his way and block his path to self-fulfillment commit the crime of depriving him of his human rights. If that is not the most violent of crimes, it is surely among the most serious in its effect; for to thwart the normal course of a life, to stop its progress and block its growth, is a crime different only in degree from the taking of a life. It is to be hoped that the law, in its imperfect majesty, will one day come to recognize that crime.”

The authors’ closing paragraph expresses my own heart:

“It is not a matter of turning back but of turning away and turning toward. The voice of American has for too long been an inexhaustible monologue addressed to the world at large; the time has come for dialogue across other cultures and within our own. Community requires communication, as John Dewey told us; and communication, for Americans at the crossroads of the future that is upon us, requires attending and listening, approaching and meeting, signaling and touching—and, hopefully, a little learning.”

Other miscellaneous quotes I liked:

“A succinct definition of love is that it is the ability, by demonstrative acts, to confer survival benefits on others in a creatively enlarging manner. This means that by one’s acts one not only enables the other to live but to live more fully realized than he would otherwise have been.”
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“The greatest gift that the teacher has to bestow upon his pupils is his personality, for when al else is forgotten, that is what will be remembered.”
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A quote from Joost Meerloo:
“I cannot converse with my authoritarian-minded friend. His looks are too serious and he dictates the subject matter at dinner. The play of conversation must be collective action; it must be speaking in such a way that the listener is able to receive the words and to know how to deal with them. It must remain a mutual experience, for only so is it real communication.”
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“The preeminent philosopher of dialogue, Martin Buber, has dealt at length with the subtle distinctions, in form as well as essence, which separate the genuine from the spurious—the authentic from the unauthentic—in the contingent world of interpersonal communication.” The authors give Buber’s three different kinds of dialogue: genuine, technical, and monologue disguised as dialogue. show less

The goal of adulthood is not to grow up but to develop what are considered to be childlike traits; the ability to love, to learn, to wonder, to know, to explore, to experiment. This is the thesis set forth by distinguished anthropologist Ashley Montagu in Growing Young. based on scientific evidence and years of interdisciplinary research, this revolutionary book shows that we are actually designed to grow and develop all of our lives and that we are not intended to become the ossified adults show more prescribed by society. show less