by Chris Knight University of East London In 1844, following a four-year voyage around the world, Charles Darwin confided to a close friend that he had come to a dangerous conclusion. For seven years, he wrote, he had been ‘engaged in a very presumptuous work’, perhaps ‘a very foolish one’. He had noticed that on … Continue reading “The science of solidarity”
“Chris Knight of the Radical Anthropology Group looks at the ‘selfish gene’ revolution – and draws some rather different conclusions from moralistic liberals” – article in Weekly Worker. 3 Aug 2006
by Chris Knight University of East London In 1844, following a four-year voyage around the world, Charles Darwin confided to a close friend that he had come to a dangerous conclusion. For seven years, he wrote, he had been ‘engaged in a very presumptuous work’, perhaps ‘a very foolish one’. He had noticed that on … Continue reading “Human Solidarity and The Selfish Gene”
The chief value of the study of human origins is that it nails the myth that ‘no revolution can ever change human nature’. It shows, on the contrary, that everything distinctively human about our nature – our ability to speak, to see ourselves as others see us, to aspire to act on moral principle – … Continue reading “The human revolution”
Full cv Book reviews of Blood Relations: Menstruation and the origins of culture. Collated reviewers’ comments Caroline Humphrey’s review in the London Review of Books. See below for PDF files. Recent publications Knight, C. and J. Lewis (2017). Wild Voices: Mimicry, Reversal, Metaphor, and the Emergence of Language. Current Anthropology Volume 58, Number 4, August … Continue reading “Publications List”
“A most important, novel, well-argued and monumental piece of work.” J. D. Lewis-Williams, Rock Art Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand “This book may be the most important ever written on the evolution of human social organization. It brings together observation and theory from social anthropology, primatology, and paleoanthropology in a manner never before equalled. … Continue reading “Chris Knight (1995). Blood Relations: Menstruation and the origins of culture. New Haven & London: Yale University Press.).”
WOMEN INITIATED CULTURE A review of Chris Knight, 1991. Blood Relations: Menstruation and the origins of culture. New Haven & London: Yale University Press. Women initiated culture. It was they who opened the door to human history. They did so through a sex strike whose banner was the blood of menstruation. This is Chris Knight’s … Continue reading “The revolution which worked”
Chris Knight. Menstrual synchrony and the Australian Aboriginal Rainbow Snake. In T. Buckley & Alma Gottlieb (eds), Blood Magic: The anthropology of menstruation. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, pp. 232-55 Over much of Aboriginal Australia men exercise ritual power through ceremonies (stated in myths once to have been the prerogative of women) … Continue reading “Menstrual Synchrony and the Australian Aboriginal Rainbow Snake.”
CHRIS KNIGHT From The Evolutionary Emergence of Language: social function and the origins of linguistic form, eds Chris Knight, Michael Studdert-Kennedy & James R Hurford. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. ISBN 0 521 78696 7. 2000 The theme of language as play suggests inquiries into non-cognitive uses of language such as that found in riddles, … Continue reading “Play as Precursor of Phonology and Syntax”
Chris Knight From Approaches to the Evolution of Language, ed James R Hurford, Michael Studdert-Kennedy & Chris Knight. 1998. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK, ISBN 0 521 63964 6. 1998 1 Introduction: the Darwinian paradigm Darwinism is setting a new research agenda across the related fields of palaeoanthropology, evolutionary psychology and theoretical linguistics (Dunbar 1993; … Continue reading “Ritual/speech coevolution: a solution to the problem of deception”
