American Anthropological Association
Centennial Meeting
New Orleans

Nov. 20 - 24, 2002

Battle of the Sexes: Can Biology and History Meet?

The Long Division: Can Biology and History Meet Through Anthropology?

Historian Robert McElvaine (Millsaps College) proposes in his 2001 book, Eve’s Seed: Biology, the Sexes, and the Course of History a new field of “biohistory,” which seeks to gain a greater understanding of human historical developments by taking account of the human biogram and events in “prehistory” that historians generally ignore, but which are the focus of archeologists and many anthropologists. McElvaine uses this approach for a broad study of the relationships between women and men from evolution to the present.

Lionel Tiger (Rutgers) is a pioneer in the field of sociobiology. His work has focused on many of the issues McElvaine addresses, but they take quite different views of how biology and culture have interacted in the area of the sexes. Tiger's recent book, The Decline of Males covers some of the same ground that Eve’s Seed does, but reaches different conclusions.

David Gilmore (SUNY-Stony Brook) has written extensively on men and manhood, including his latest book, Misogyny: The Male Malady. Rita Wright (NYU), author of Gender and Archaeology, is keenly interested in “the effort to reclaim a view of human existence as a stream of history beginning with early evolution to modern concerns.”

All four of these presenters participated in a day-long symposium on April 2, 2002, at Millsaps College, involving 15 scholars from a variety of disciplines, on bridging the gap between the sciences and humanities through McElvaine's concept of biohistory. Everyone left that meeting exhilarated by the prospects of bringing together human biology and history, with anthropology serving as the bridge. Betty Friedan said at the end of the symposium that the symposium would come to be seen as the beginning of a paradigm shift. E. O. Wilson, who participated with McElvaine in a well-attended and lively session on biohistory at last year’s American Historical Association meetings, says of the April 2 symposium, “A new field is stirring into life.”

A great desire was expressed by all the participants for continuing this dialogue in other venues, and we propose to begin that process at the AAA.

This session will consist of Professors McElvaine and Tiger offering critiques of each other’s approaches to the bringing together of biology and history, particularly in the area of the sexes, with Professors Wright and Gilmore responding to both arguments. McElvaine sees the roles of women in human development as having been more central than does Tiger and, in general, McElvaine sees cultural developments as having been more influential in channeling basic biological traits. The focus of the debate between them in this session will be on the contemporary responses of men to the greater equality between the sexes and how these responses have been influenced by the biological and cultural past.

The session will be introduced by Professor Gilmore as chair, followed by 20-minute presentations by McElvaine and Tiger, 10-minute responses by Wight and Gilmore, 5-minute rejoinders by McElvaine and Tiger, and then open discussion among the panelists and the audience.