Summary Of Man's Most Dangerous Myth By Ashley Montagu

In the midst of a world where countless advancements have been made to better our society as a whole, the concept of race and the misconceptions that come along with this are more prevalent an relevant than ever. Man’s Most Dangerous Myth – The Fallacy of Race that was written by Ashley Montagu in such an elegant and insightful manner took on the task at debunking the many absurd and detrimental dogmas that were ever so present during the time he wrote this masterpiece. The horrific practices and persecution of masses of certain peoples because of their outward physical appearance gave rise to the groundbreaking work that was published originally in 1942 at the climax of Nazism which would serve as an effort to combat and challenge these common
D from Columbia University and has taught anthropology at New York University, and other various places and has vast knowledge and understanding of social and race relations and used his experience to educate others. His insight on the common racial myths and untruths in writing this work could very well be drawn from his own experience with racial prejudice when he was younger and living as a Jew in London, England, a target for anti-Semitic abuse (Montagu 36). He has made a wide range of intellectual contributions and has acted as a leader in the topic of race relations. Ashley Montague through his work in Man’s Most Dangerous Myth makes the claim and argument that when addressing the matter at hand being race, it is merely a social construct system and what constitutes the various differences between people are not due to significant biological
Genetic drift or gene variability are the primary reasons for seeing a variety of phenotypes within these genotypes however there are other factors that act as secondary forces, like environment, social and sexual selection, natural, inbreeding, outbreeding, hybridization, etc. Mutations can contribute to the physical differences that are seen between populations. Mutation defines “the condition in which a particular gene undergoes a permanent change of some sort, so that its physiological expression differs from that of the older form of the gene, and its action may express itself in the appearance of a new trait or new form of an old one (Montagu 112). We see various traits that are unique to one population and nonexistent in others. Montagu explains an example of the development of kinky hair among blacks. He notes that, “in one part of a population mutant dominant genes leading to the development of kinky hair may have scattered throughout the population” (Montagu 112). The physical and genetic differences that distinguish certain populations from others simply show that over an evolutionary or ecologic range there was a process of genetic change throughout that ethnic