TY - JOUR

T1 - From biology to politics and vice versa

T2 - Evgeny Panov about man: A review of E. N. Panov, Chelovek — sozidatel i razrushitel: Evolyutsiya povedeniya i sotsialnoy organizatsii [man — creator and destroyer: Evolution of behavior and social organization]. moscow: Publ. House “YASK”, 2017, 634 pp., ill.

AU - Kozintsev, Alexander

PY - 2019/1/1

Y1 - 2019/1/1

N2 - Evgeny Panov, the prominent Russian ethologist, has greatly contributed to the study of the behavior of vertebrates and the comparative analysis of animal and human communication. In his book, he raises numerous questions relating to human evolution, cultural evolution, the origins of language, and especially the qualitative distinction of man compared to animals. Panov is a fierce opponent of sociobiology, human ethology, and the gradualist theory of the emergence of language. He refutes the views of many scholars, guilty, as he believes, of biological bias in the study of human behavior and of anthropomorphism in the approach to animal behavior. In the opinion of the reviewer, who is generally sympathetic to the author’s ideas, much of this criticism is warranted, but much stems from overstatements and somewhat biased attitudes. Human ethology, for one, is not part of sociobiology, and its conclusions sometimes agree with the author’s views. Panov’s general conclusion is that man as a generic being has no biological “nature” (and hence no hereditary burden to cope with) whereas each single person does have a “nature” and may be burdened with adverse predispositions. In his view, this largely accounts for the paradox formulated in the title of the book. The reviewer considers this conclusion a departure from the principles advocated by the author himself.

AB - Evgeny Panov, the prominent Russian ethologist, has greatly contributed to the study of the behavior of vertebrates and the comparative analysis of animal and human communication. In his book, he raises numerous questions relating to human evolution, cultural evolution, the origins of language, and especially the qualitative distinction of man compared to animals. Panov is a fierce opponent of sociobiology, human ethology, and the gradualist theory of the emergence of language. He refutes the views of many scholars, guilty, as he believes, of biological bias in the study of human behavior and of anthropomorphism in the approach to animal behavior. In the opinion of the reviewer, who is generally sympathetic to the author’s ideas, much of this criticism is warranted, but much stems from overstatements and somewhat biased attitudes. Human ethology, for one, is not part of sociobiology, and its conclusions sometimes agree with the author’s views. Panov’s general conclusion is that man as a generic being has no biological “nature” (and hence no hereditary burden to cope with) whereas each single person does have a “nature” and may be burdened with adverse predispositions. In his view, this largely accounts for the paradox formulated in the title of the book. The reviewer considers this conclusion a departure from the principles advocated by the author himself.

KW - Communication

KW - Ethology

KW - Gradualism

KW - Language origins

KW - Second signal system

KW - Sociobiology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85077613675&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.31250/1815-8870-2019-15-43-189-201

DO - 10.31250/1815-8870-2019-15-43-189-201

M3 - Book/Film/Article review

AN - SCOPUS:85077613675

VL - 2019

SP - 189

EP - 201

JO - Antropologicheskij Forum

JF - Antropologicheskij Forum

SN - 1815-8870

IS - 43

ER -