Ashley Montagu (1905–99,) in full Montague Francis Ashley Montagu, originally Israel Ehrenberg, was an Anglo-American anthropologist, writer, and humanist. An expert on human biosocial evolution, he argued that cultural phenomena are not genetically predetermined. He is noted for his strident anti-racist views and his more than 50 books that popularize anthropology and science.
Born in London, Montagu studied at the University of London and the University of Florence and received his PhD from Columbia University, New York City, in 1937. He lectured and taught at several schools, including Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, where he chaired the department of anthropology 1949–55.
Montagu first attracted public attention as the author of UNESCO’s “Statement on Race” (1950,) in which he called for ethnic equality, he made a case that the concept of race was the result of slavery, and was based on misguided attempts to classify humans that have no biological reality. He published this and subsequent versions as Statement on Race (1951.)
Montagu broadened the understanding of human social evolution. His work explored a range of humanistic themes—from human aggression and the use of profanity to infant nurturing, the importance of touch, and the nature of human love. He wrote on such varied topics as human evolution, culture, and childcare; his most influential work is The Natural Superiority of Women (1953; revised 1999.)
Montagu’s other works include Man’s Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race (1942,) Touching: The Human Significance of the Skin (1971,) The Nature of Human Aggression (1976,) and Growing Young (1981.)
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The doctor has been taught to be interested not in health but in disease. What the public is taught is that health is the cure for disease.
—Ashley Montagu
The idea is to die young as late as possible.
—Ashley Montagu
Topics: Death, Age
The deepest personal defeat suffered by human beings is constituted by the difference between what one was capable of becoming, and what one has in fact become.
—Ashley Montagu
The Good Book — one of the most remarkable euphemisms ever copied.
—Ashley Montagu
Science has proof without any certainty. Creationists have certainty without any proof.
—Ashley Montagu
Topics: Science
The only measure of what you believe is what you do. If you want to know what people believe, don’t read what they write, don’t ask them what they believe, just observe what they do.
—Ashley Montagu
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