Robert Ardrey Ordine dei libri
16 ottobre 1908 – 14 gennaio 1980
Robert Ardrey fu un drammaturgo e scrittore che divenne una figura fondamentale nel rivoluzionare il pensiero sulla natura umana. Le sue prime opere teatrali, influenzate dal suo mentore Thornton Wilder, ottennero successo a Broadway e in seguito un riconoscimento internazionale. Ardrey passò alla scrittura di sceneggiature a Hollywood, affermandosi come uno scrittore di prim'ordine. Successivamente si trasferì in Africa, dove la sua ricerca sulle origini umane lo portò alla sua opera più influente. In essa, Ardrey sfidò le ipotesi prevalenti nelle scienze sociali, sostenendo che il comportamento umano è in parte plasmato da istinti ereditari, un'ipotesi in gran parte poi convalidata dalla scienza.
- 1977
- 1972
- 1969
African Genesis
A Personal Investigation into the Animal Origins and Nature of Man
- 1961
“Not in innocence, and not in Asia, was mankind born.” So opens Robert Ardrey's earthshaking 1961 classic African Genesis, his first professional foray into the scientific realm. In 1955 Ardrey travelled to Africa to examine the collection of the then-obscure paleontologist Raymond Dart. He saw, culled from a cave occupied by early humans, a collection of antelope jawbones perfect for sawing, and antelope forelegs perfect for clubbing. He saw the skull of a juvenile proto-human, apparently bashed in. A growing body of evidence suggested that man had evolved on the African continent from carnivorous, predatory stock, who had also, long before man, achieved the use of weapons. An acclaimed dramatist, Ardrey's interest in the African discoveries sprang less from purely scientific grounds than from the radical new light they cast on the eternal question: Why do we behave as we do? Are we naturally inclined towards war and weapons? From 1955 to 1961, Ardrey commuted between the museums and libraries and laboratories of the North, and the games reserves and fossil beds of Africa trying to answer that question. The result was African Genesis. In a sweeping work that encompasses the evolutionary roots of nationalism and patriotism, private property and social order, hierarchy and status-seeking, and even conscience, Ardrey tells a story of man never before heard, and redefines what exactly it means to be human.
