Word: behaviorism
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...subject of man as an animal is older than Darwin. But to Darwin's insights into man's evolution, the new approach is adding radical new dimensions. It rejects the view that biology has nothing to do with behavior, and proposes the hypothesis that culture itself has a biological basis. "What we are saying," says Fox, "is that it is highly probable that the species is predisposed to behave in certain ways and that these ways are probably more numerous and specific than has been thought...
...obvious way to learn about these predispositions is to study the behavior of man's nearest neighbors, the monkeys and great apes-and to study them not just in the zoo or laboratory but in their natural habitat. In studying the baboon, for example, Berkeley Anthropologist Sherwood L. Washburn and his Harvard disciple, Irven DeVore, are concerned mainly with what this primate can reveal about man. The baboon's hierarchical society, commanded by dominant males, suggests the fundamental pattern to which man's ancestors may have subscribed, long before marriage was invented. So far no primate study...
...education process is informal. Washburn has shown, for instance, that primate curiosity-which in man would be called basic research-comes into play when the animal is well-fed and secure; only then is he in the mood to gratify this intellectual need. Similarly, the juvenile ape, observing grownup behavior, mimes it in his games. For this pleasurable educational system, modern man has substituted the discipline of the classroom and the material rewards of grades, both of which, in Washburn's view, offend man's basic biological nature...
...most human aggregates have gone beyond the tribe. And perhaps as an inevitable result, aggression no longer keeps but strains the peace. In man's simpler and less crowded past, aggression was both useful and effective; in man's present, it can lead to such thoroughly unanimal behavior as murder...
...playground. Little Danny snitched that Georgie was hiring players without consulting him and with no regard for the team's budget. Georgie tattled that Danny was never around to consult. Danny claimed that Georgie demanded to be named general manager and was guilty of such naughty behavior as sending an assistant to spy on another team. Georgie said that he "never asked for anything for myself, only for things that would help the players and give the fans a winning team." Danny said that Georgie encouraged the players to ask for more and more money and that...