Separation And Its Discontents: Toward An Evolutionary Theory Of Anti-semitism (paperback Or Softback)

This book builds upon my previous work, A People That Shall Dwell Alone: Judaism asa Group Evolutionary Strategy (MacDonald 1994/2002; hereafter PTSDA). While PTSDA focused on developing a theory of Judaism within anevolutionary framework, the present volume focuses on the phenomenon ofanti-Semitism. Judaism and anti-Semitism fairly cry out for an evolutionaryinterpretation. Anti-Semitism has been a very robust tendency over a very longperiod of human history and in a wide range of societies with different formsof government, different economic systems, and different dominant religiousideologies. Many anti-Semitic episodes, such as the Iberian inquisitions andthe Nazi holocaust, have been characterized by extraordinary intra-societal violence.Moreover, anti-Semitism has sometimes been characterized by a very overt,self-conscious racialism...a phenomenon that immediately suggests the relevanceof evolutionary theory. The basic thesis of this book can be summarized bythe proposition that Judaism must be conceptualized as a group strategycharacterized by cultural and genetic segregation from gentile societiescombined with resource competition and conflicts of interest with segments ofgentile societies. This cultural and genetic separatism combined with resourcecompetition and other conflicts of interest tend to result in division andhatred within the society.Nevertheless, as Leslie White (1966, 3) wrote manyyears ago in his discussion of the Boasian school of anthropology as apolitically inspired cult, "One who follows procedures such as these incurs therisk of being accused of indulging in non-scholarly, personal attacks upon whomhe discusses. Such a charge is, in fact, expectable and completely in keepingwith the thesis of this essay. We wish to state that no personal attacks areintended." No personal or ethnic attacks are intended here,either. Nevertheless, the charge that this is an anti-Semitic book is, to useWhite's phrase, expectable and completely in keeping wit MacDonald develops a theory of anti-Semitism based on an evolutionary interpretation of social identity theory--a major approach to group conflict in contemporary social psychology. Beginning in the ancient world, anti-Semitism has existed under a variety of religious and political regimes. MacDonald explores several theoretically important common themes of anti-Semitic writings such as Jewish clannishness and cultural separatism, economic and cultural domination of gentiles, and the issue of loyalty to the wider society. Particular attention is paid to three major manifestations of Western anti-Semitism: the development of institutionalized anti-Semitism in the Roman Empire, the Iberian Inquisitions, and the phenomenon of Nazism. All of these movements exhibited a powerful gentile group cohesion in opposition to Judaism as a group strategy, and MacDonald argues that each may be analyzed as a reaction to the presence of Judaism as a highly successful group evolutionary strategy. Because of the repeated occurrence of anti-Semitism, Jews have developed a highly flexible array of strategies to minimize its effects. These include: crypsis during periods of persecution, controls on Jewish behavior likely to lead to anti-Semitism, and the manipulation of gentile attitudes toward Jews. This controversial work challenges prevailing views. Students and scholars involved with evolutionary approaches to human behavior and Jewish Studies will be interested, as will social scientists and historians in general. The theory of group evolutionary strategies described in A People That Shall Dwell Alone: Judaism as a Group Evolutionary Strategy (MacDonald 1994; hereafter PTSDA) argued that Judaism may be understood mainly as a cultural invention, maintained by social controls that act to structure the behavior of group members and characterized by a religious ideology that rationalizes ingroup behavior both to ingroup members and to outsiders.