Ashley Montagu

Ashley Montagu (1905–1999) was a British-American anthropologist and humanist who challenged scientific racism and argued that human racial categories are social rather than biological divisions.

Franz Boas: A German-American anthropologist who rejected biological explanations for cultural differences and shaped modern anthropology. Boas’s critique of racial determinism influenced Montagu’s anthropology and opposition to scientific racism.
University College London: A public research university in London, founded in 1826. Montagu studied anthropology there under prominent British anthropologists before moving to the United States.
Race (human categorization): A system for classifying people into groups using perceived physical traits and social meanings. Montagu challenged treating these historically variable groupings as discrete biological divisions.
Man's Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race: Montagu’s 1942 book arguing that race is a dangerous myth rather than a sound biological classification. This book made his case against racial categories accessible beyond specialist anthropology.
W. E. B. Du Bois: An American sociologist and civil-rights leader who analyzed race as a historical and social formation. Du Bois likewise challenged biological accounts of race, from a distinct intellectual and political tradition.
Bronisław Malinowski: A Polish-British anthropologist who developed influential methods of ethnographic fieldwork. Malinowski taught Montagu at the London School of Economics and influenced his anthropological training.
Human genetic variation: Differences in genetic material among individuals and populations of humans. Montagu’s argument did not deny variation; it disputed its division into fixed racial types.
The Concept of Race: Montagu’s 1942 edited collection examining race through anthropology, biology, and social science. The collection brought scientific critiques of race together during wartime debate.
Carleton S. Coon: An American physical anthropologist who classified human populations into races and argued for their separate evolutionary histories. Coon’s racial taxonomy became a prominent target of Montagu’s anti-racist criticism.
Scientific racism: The use of purported scientific methods and findings to justify racial hierarchy and inequality. Montagu’s public career centered on rebutting claims that science established innate racial rankings.

Linked from 3 pages