THE HUMANIZATION OF MAN

For famed anthropologist Ashley Montagu, our innate nature is not evil but good, the traditional idea of original sin having done much to underlie man's malfunctionings. In these stimulating essays, a cross between an Ethical Culture Sunday sermon and a schoolmasters devout belief in educability, Mr. Montagu runs the sociological gamut: prenatal influences mix with value determinants, psycho-dynamic factors run ragged right behind beatniks and the bomb. Key points: to live as if to live and love were one is the only true religion; wars are caused by the collective nervous breakdowns of nations; babies must be born at home since hospitals identify with sickness and pregnancy is a joy; individualism is a pathogenic myth and so is the survival of the fittest; competition leads to intrapersonal inconsistencies, i.e. we love our neighbors as ourselves and yet compete with them tooth and nail all the time; a baby wants to love and be loved and if this is thwarted he will be unable to love as child or adult. To some these so-called scientific statements are mere soporifics; to others they are as meaningful and momentous as the faithful consider Mr. Montagu to be. The latter should have a field day with Humanization of Man.