Book Summary of the Use and Abuse of Biology
Part 1
Marshall Sahlins is one of the most prominent American anthropologists of our time. He holds the title of Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago where he presently teaches. Marshall Sahlins', The Use and Abuse of Biology, is an excellent text, which attacks both the logical errors of sociobiology and its ideological distortions. His work focuses on demonstrating the power that culture has to shape people's perceptions and actions and that culture has a unique power to motivate people, which is not derived from biology or for that matter any other of the natural sciences. In the text, The Use And Abuse of Biology, Sahlins reveals his true worries that culture can be usurped as an independent super-organism directing all human thought, emotion and behavior and this in turn undermines the prestige or importance of cultural anthropology (His early work focuses on debunking the idea of 'economically rational man'). Sahlins de-constructs the interpretation of human societies performed by certain of the most eminent individuals such as sociobiologists. He argues that certain elements of human nature and civilization cannot be reduced to biological principles. He argues that the importance of anthropology as a science must contribute to understand the variety and unity of human cultures
In the first part of the text, the inadequacies of sociobiology are presented. There is a critique of the vulgar sociobiology, (pp. ix-xv and 3-16). In The Use and Abuse of Biology the changes of evolutionary theory itself are discussed, Sahlins argues that the comprehension of "natural selection has been assimilated to the theory of social action, which is "characteristic of the competitive market-place" (pp. xiv). This vulgar sociobiology is defined as the explication of social behavior of the human organism who has drives and needs- and it is those factors, which have been built by human nature. Sahlins
Marshall Sahlins is one of the most prominent American anthropologists of our time. He holds the title of Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago where he presently teaches. Marshall Sahlins', The Use and Abuse of Biology, is an excellent text, which attacks both the logical errors of sociobiology and its ideological distortions. His work focuses on demonstrating the power that culture has to shape people's perceptions and actions and that culture has a unique power to motivate people, which is not derived from biology or for that matter any other of the natural sciences. In the text, The Use And Abuse of Biology, Sahlins reveals his true worries that culture can be usurped as an independent super-organism directing all human thought, emotion and behavior and this in turn undermines the prestige or importance of cultural anthropology (His early work focuses on debunking the idea of 'economically rational man'). Sahlins de-constructs the interpretation of human societies performed by certain of the most eminent individuals such as sociobiologists. He argues that certain elements of human nature and civilization cannot be reduced to biological principles. He argues that the importance of anthropology as a science must contribute to understand the variety and unity of human cultures
In the first part of the text, the inadequacies of sociobiology are presented. There is a critique of the vulgar sociobiology, (pp. ix-xv and 3-16). In The Use and Abuse of Biology the changes of evolutionary theory itself are discussed, Sahlins argues that the comprehension of "natural selection has been assimilated to the theory of social action, which is "characteristic of the competitive market-place" (pp. xiv). This vulgar sociobiology is defined as the explication of social behavior of the human organism who has drives and needs- and it is those factors, which have been built by human nature. Sahlins
References: Davis, P., Sociobiology: Social Action, Harvard University Press, (1976). Jones, P. Sociological Theory, New York, Basic Books, (1996). McKinley J., Sociology & Biology, New York, Kingdom Press, (1987). Metcalf, K., The Human Organism & Society, University of Michigan, (1975). Zimmerman, S., Sociobiology and Reality, London, Lawrence & Wishart, (1985).