326

American Anthropohgisl

[56, 19541

some of the theories, when stated in the form of testable hypotheses. The book consists
of eight chapters, in which the theories of Freud, Rank, Jung, Adler, Greenacre,
Fenichel, Thompson, Sterba, Fodor, Fromm, Erikson, Klein, Sullivan, Kardiner,
Alexander, Homey, and others are compared on such subjects as the importance of
infant experiences, psychosexual development, defense mechanisms, adult character
structure; and on such notions as libido, id, ego, superego, Oedipus complex, anxiety,
and many others, In assessing the evidence presented as proof or as disproof for
the various psychoanalytic formulations, one is impressed by the meagerness of data
presented by the pro-psychoanalytic writers, and by the egregious misunderstanding
of psychoanalytic concepts which characterizes some of the anti-psychoanalytic
writers. Since the readers of this journal are generally acquainted with the derelictions
of the former, we shall present but one example of the latter. I n a study disproving
the Freudian notion of sublimation, the author (Taylor) reveals his ignorance of
the very concept he was supposedly testing. Thus, the most widely quoted study in
the literature stands as a solitary monument of how not to approach the problem
(p. 120).
Blum concludes his survey with the comment that the importance of psychoanalysis
has been clearly established. Its assertions continue to enjoy wide application. If these assertions
can be viewed, not as indestructable facts, but as hypotheses subject to verification or disproof,
we have the makings of a theory. . . . A combined and concerted research approach-through the
experimental laboratory, the interview situation, the projective technique, the field study, etc.holds real promise for the development of a sound theory of personality (p. 1911.
To this statement the reviewer responds with a hearty Amen.
Despite the excellence of this book, it cannot be recommended to the psychoanalytic neophyte, not because it is difficult, but because much of the meaning of the
various theorists is lost when their ideas are removed from the total structure of their
thought, as they are in this book, and isolated for purposes of exposition. But those
who are already acquainted with some of these authors in their primary sources will
benefit greatly by the systematic comparison and evaluation which Blum has undertaken.
MELFORDE. SPIRO,University of Conlzecticut
New York: The MacThe Natural Superiority of Women. M. F. ASHLEY MONTAGU.
millan Co., 1953. 205 pp. $3.50,
The reviewer who feels great sympathy for any attempt on the part of the anthropologist to make his material available to the general lay reader is usually in a dilemma
when he examines such work. Readable material necessarily violates certain rituals of
jargon and style. The writer of popular social science finds himself in a precarious
position between the Scylla of overgeneralization and the Charybdis of Believe it or
not. His is not an impossible task, however. His fellows, except for the irresponsibly
over-cautious who till their gardens in a disciplinary Main Street, are likely to test
popular writing in its nonacademic context.
However, I find myself in no such dilemma in the examination of Ashley Montagus
The Natural Superiority of Women. Viewed from an anthropological point of view this
work is difficult to support. Although Ashley Montagu mentions Ruth Benedict and
Margaret Mead on pages 134, 159, 198, refers to Ralph Linton on pages 31-32 and includes in the remainder of the book some 20 pages of historicocultural interpretation
that I was able to recognize, the remaining SO% of the book remains even more ethnocentric than the writings of Havelock Ellis upon which many of the arguments of this
book seem to be based. It would be easier to review this as the work of the nonscientific

Book Reviews

327

essayist or polemicist. As such it can be described as a case of genderism. Genderism, like racism, is characterized by making extravagant or a t least weighted claims
for or against a given group within the total community. The Nalural Superiority of
Women is just as genderist as the postwar rash of jeremiads against mom.
Despite the authors disclaimer, this book fails to recognize the dynamic interdependence of social roles and argues the role of women as a ding an sich directly emergent from a clearly distinguishable biological base. Amusing descriptions of American
middle-class home life coupled with a full alphabet derived from thoughts about the
Y chromosome contribute to a forced conclusion of the superiority of women.
The author defines superiority in terms of social or biological survival benefit.
One might question the testability of surviva1of one sex in a bisexual species. Perhaps it is the recognition of this difficulty which leads the author to list sex-linked
strengths and weaknesses and then to turn to the social milieu for his description
of effects.I t is in this testing that the book is weakest. Great women, vital statistics
(from European and North American reports), and Dagwood and Blondie type social
situations are loosely merged with a priori panegyrics to women, love, and cooperation to prove the point. A legitimate thesis which might well be studied in context in
cross-cultural laboratories is reduced to another foray in the battle between the sexes.
Notwithstanding the negative tenor of this review, I find this a stimulating book.
Its extremist position, its readability, and its laudable idealism make it a book which
I have found exceedingly useful as a starting point for junior college discussions. Perhaps this book will focus attention on the need for more exhaustive studies of the
problem of social gender.
RAYL. BIRDWHISTELL,
University o f Louisville

The South Seas in Transition: A Study of Post-War Rehabilitation and Reconstruction in

Three British Pacific Dependencies. W. E. H. STANNER.Sydney: Australasian Publishing Co., 1953. xiv, 448 pp., 46 tabIes, 3 maps. $6.00.
This adds another important volume to the growing list of definitive works on culture change and administration in the South Pacific area. Dr. Stanner, Australian anthropologist, is Reader in Comparative Social Institutions a t the Research School of
Pacific Studies in the still comparatively new Australian National University being
built up a t the capital city, Canberra. His book presents the result of field work as well
as extensive library research on the Territory of Papua and New Guinea, controlled by
Australia, the United Kingdom Crown Colony of Fiji, and the Trust Territory of Western Samoa, administered by New Zealand. Parts I to I11 constitute an examination of
each separate territory in terms of habitat and peoples, modern history with emphasis
on the war and postwar period, administrative structure and policy, economic status,
and social welfare. Part IV, titled Implications, offers a comparative discussion of
trusteeship and regionalism, economic development, and social policy for heterogeneous problems. The book is in rather small print and very tightly written, so
that a great amount of ground is covered. Dr. Stanners field observations extend not
only to these Pacific island situations, and to the Australian Aborigines, but also to
Southeast Asia and Africa, and this gives strength to his generalizations and criticisms
relating to policy in such underdeveloped areas; his ideas can therefore be stimulating
to workers in applied anthropology and administration elsewhere than in Oceania.
The anthropological eye is likely to be caught first by the sections on each territory
which essay a brief summary of the racial, linguistic, and cultural characteristics of
the indigenous populations, including modern changes; these are very well written,
though necessarily thin to the specialist. The Papua and New Guinea section also