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
2
A Brief History of the Split
(Cont’)

1830 Auguste Comte (founder of
sociology) writes, “The Course of
Positive Philosophy”.


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’)

Sociology:

“Social physics”


Focus on search for
general (Newtonian-like)
laws
Progressive
Developmentalism

Anthropology:

“Historical
Particularism”

Focus on particular
groups (cultural
relativism)
4
A (VERY) Brief History of
Social Evolution &
Eugenics
5
A Brief History of S. Evolution &
Eugenics (Cont’)

Comtean Positivism



Herbert Spencer


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




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



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)







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.
9
References:
(Web Sites)






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