Ashley Montagu was a British-American anthropologist who became one of the most prominent public critics of the biological concept of race in the mid-twentieth century. In Man's Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race (1942), written in the tradition of his teacher Franz Boas, he argued that race as commonly understood was not a valid biological category but a social and political construction with no scientific foundation, a position that was controversial when first published but became increasingly influential in later decades of anthropology and genetics. Montagu was also a prolific public intellectual who wrote widely on human nature, cooperation, and the relationship between biology and culture for a general audience.
Facts
Birth DateSourced to the subject's own account Birth YearSourced to the subject's own account Death DateSourced to the subject's own account Death YearSourced to the subject's own account BirthplaceSourced to the subject's own account Death PlaceSourced to the subject's own account Nationality / CultureSourced to the subject's own account Defining ContributionSourced to the subject's own accountServed as rapporteur for the 1950 UNESCO Statement on Race and argued in Man's Most Dangerous Myth that race is not a valid biological category but a social and political construction. 1 Notable WorkSourced to the subject's own accountMan's Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race 1 FAQs
What part did Ashley Montagu play in the UNESCO Statement on Race?
He was the principal author of the UNESCO committee's Statement on Race.
In 1949 Ashley Montagu was asked to serve on a task force of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, and he became the principal author of that committee's Statement on Race. The reference sources that cover his career link this work with his book Man's Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race, and one of them adds that his position that race is a social construction rather than a scientific category later became close to orthodoxy, though the matter is still disputed.
Connections
Associated With
Source Ashley Montagu - Wikipedia
Source Ashley Montagu - Wikipedia
Source Ashley Montagu - Wikipedia
Source Ashley Montagu - Wikipedia
Informed By
Montagu studied under and was shaped by Boas, carrying forward his anti-racist critique of biological race concepts.
In the Other Atlases
Nationality
Also in Geography Atlas: the nationality of this subject.
Also in Geography Atlas: the nationality of this subject.
Sources
1. Ashley Montagu - Wikipedia
Wikipedialead sentence, birth date clause
Montague Francis Ashley-Montagu (born Israel Ehrenberg; June 28, 1905, November 26, 1999) was a British-American anthropologist who popularized the study of topics such as race and gender and their relation to politics and development.
lead sentence, birth year figure
Montague Francis Ashley-Montagu (born Israel Ehrenberg; June 28, 1905, November 26, 1999) was a British-American anthropologist who popularized the study of topics such as race and gender and their relation to politics and development.
lead sentence, death date clause
Montague Francis Ashley-Montagu (born Israel Ehrenberg; June 28, 1905, November 26, 1999) was a British-American anthropologist who popularized the study of topics such as race and gender and their relation to politics and development.
lead sentence, death year figure
Montague Francis Ashley-Montagu (born Israel Ehrenberg; June 28, 1905, November 26, 1999) was a British-American anthropologist who popularized the study of topics such as race and gender and their relation to politics and development.
lead sentence, nationality descriptor
Montague Francis Ashley-Montagu (born Israel Ehrenberg; June 28, 1905, November 26, 1999) was a British-American anthropologist who popularized the study of topics such as race and gender and their relation to politics and development.
lead sentence, birth name clause
Montague Francis Ashley-Montagu (born Israel Ehrenberg; June 28, 1905, November 26, 1999) was a British-American anthropologist who popularized the study of topics such as race and gender and their relation to politics and development.
Early life and education section, birthplace sentence
Montagu was born Israel Ehrenberg on June 28, 1905, in London, England.
Personal life section, death sentence
He died in Princeton, New Jersey on November 26, 1999.
Man's Most Dangerous Myth section, opening sentence
One of his works, Man's Most Dangerous Myth, was written in 1942, when race was considered the determinant of people's character and intelligence.
lead paragraph, UNESCO rapporteur sentence
He was the rapporteur, in 1950, for the UNESCO “statement on race”.
Associated With: Columbia University, Article text
He taught anatomy to dental students in the United States, and received his doctorate in 1936, when he produced a dissertation at Columbia University, Coming into being among the Australian Aborigines: A study of the procreative beliefs of the native tribes of Australia which was supervised by cultural anthropologist Ruth Benedict.
Associated With: Harvard University, Article text
Montagu, who became a naturalized American citizen in 1940, taught and lectured at Harvard, Princeton, Rutgers, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and New York University.
Associated With: New York University, Article text
Montagu, who became a naturalized American citizen in 1940, taught and lectured at Harvard, Princeton, Rutgers, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and New York University.
Associated With: Rutgers University, Article text
Montagu, who became a naturalized American citizen in 1940, taught and lectured at Harvard, Princeton, Rutgers, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and New York University.
View the Source Wikidata: Ashley Montagu
Wikidata Q725974, class allow-list match, case-insensitive label variant (w-bbfill-smallsix2-0926/resolve_ci.ps1)View the Source Ashley Montagu - Wikipedia (Wikipedia)
In Group: British Anthropologists, lead sentence, birth date clauseQuote, In Group: British Anthropologists, lead sentence, birth date clause
Montague Francis Ashley-Montagu (born Israel Ehrenberg; June 28, 1905, November 26, 1999) was a British-American anthropologist who popularized the study of topics such as race and gender and their relation to politics and development.
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