Robert Ardrey: Paleoanthropology, Books, Plays, Screenplays, Honours, Personal, and a List of Books by Author Robert Ardrey

Search - List of Books by Robert Ardrey

Robert Ardrey (b. October 16, 1908, Chicago, Illinois...d. January 14, 1980, South Africa) was an American playwright and screenwriter who returned to his academic training in anthropology and the behavioral sciences in the 1950s.

African Genesis and The Territorial Imperative, two of Robert Ardrey's most widely read works, as well as Desmond Morris' The Naked Ape (1967), were key elements in the public discourse of the 1960s which challenged earlier anthropological assumptions. Ardrey's ideas notably influenced Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick in the development of A Space Odyssey, as well as Sam Peckinpah, to whom Strother Martin gave copies of two of Ardrey's books. Hammond Innes' novel "Levkas Man" (1971) was also influenced by Ardrey's views on the Stone Age roots of human aggression.

Paleoanthropology more less

As a science writer for the informed non-specialist reader in paleoanthropology, which encompasses anthropology, ethology, paleontology and human evolution, Robert Ardrey was among the proponents of the hunting hypothesis and the killer ape theory.

Ardrey postulated that precursors of Australopithecus survived millions of years of drought in the Miocene and Pliocene epochs, as the savannah spread and the forests shrank, by adapting the hunting ways of carnivorous species. Changes in survival techniques and social organisation gradually differentiated pre-humans from other primates. Concomitant changes in diet potentiated unique developments in the human brain.

The killer ape theory posits that aggression, a vital factor in hunting prey for food, was a fundamental characteristic which distinguished prehuman ancestors from other primates.

These themes have also been investigated in academia by, among others:

Konrad Lorenz: On Aggression (1966)
University of Chicago "Man the Hunter" symposium (1966): Richard B. Lee and Irven DeVore , eds., Man the Hunter: Symposium on Man the Hunter, University of Chicago. Chicago: Aldine Publishing.
Sherwood Washburn and Chet Lancaster: Man the Hunter (1968). ( Washburn's students Lee and DeVore organised the 1966 Chicago conference.)
Craig Stanford: The Hunting Apes: Meat Eating and the Origins of Human Behavior, Princeton University Press (2001).
Erich Fromm: The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (1973)
Matt Cartmill: A View to a Death in the Morning: Hunting and Nature Through History (1996)

Researchers

Some of the scientists whose research particularly informed Robert Ardrey's scientific investigations, and with several of whom Ardrey consulted at length while developing his four major works in Africa from the 1940s through the 1970s, include:

Warder Clyde Allee
Charles Kimberlin Brain
Robert Broom
Helmut Buechner
Clarence Ray Carpenter
Raymond Dart
Eliot Howard
James Kitching
Louis Leakey
Eugene Marais
Kenneth Oakley

Books more less

Plays more less

Screenplays more less

Honours more less

Personal more less

Total Books: 29

2012 - The Lost Group Theatre Plays Volume II [Volume 2] (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9781477532546
ISBN-10: 1477532544
Genre: Literature & Fiction

2007 - La Evolucion Del Hombre/ the Evaluation of Man [Spanish Edition] (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9788420617053
ISBN-10: 8420617059
Genres: Literature & Fiction, Nonfiction, Science & Math

1997 - The Territorial Imperative a Personal Inquiry Into the Animal Origins of Property and Nations [Kodansha Globe] (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9781568361444
ISBN-10: 1568361440
Genres: Nonfiction, Science & Math, Engineering & Transportation

1986 - Thunder Rock (Hardcover) → Paperback
ISBN-13: 9780435220105
ISBN-10: 0435220101

1977 - Hunting Hypothesis a Personal Conclusion Concerning the Evolutionary Nature of Man (Paperback) → Paperback, Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780006348856
ISBN-10: 0006348858

1976 - The Hunting Hypothesis a Personal Conclusion Concerning the Evolutionary Nature of Man (Hardcover) → Paperback
ISBN-13: 9780689106729
ISBN-10: 0689106726

1970 - The Social Contract a Personal Inquiry Into the Evolutionary Sources of Order and Disorder (Hardcover) → Paperback, Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780689103476
ISBN-10: 0689103476

1961 - African Genesis a Personal Investigation Into the Animal Origins and Nature of Man (Hardcover) → Paperback, Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780689100130
ISBN-10: 0689100132

African Genesis (Paperback) → Paperback, Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780006316121
ISBN-10: 0006316123

Territorial Imperative the Personal Inquiry Into the Animal Origins of Property and Nations (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9780006319924
ISBN-10: 0006319920

The Social Contract (Paperback) → Paperback, Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780006330462
ISBN-10: 0006330460

Social Contract (Paperback) → Paperback, Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780440078968
ISBN-10: 0440078962

The Territorial Imperative (Paperback) → Paperback, Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780440086192
ISBN-10: 0440086191

Territorial Imperative (Paperback) → Paperback, Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780440386193
ISBN-10: 0440386195

The Territorial Imperative a Personal Inquiry Into the Animal Origins of Property and Nations (Paperback) → Paperback, Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780440586197
ISBN-10: 0440586194

Hunting Hypothesis a Personal Conclusion (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9780553102970
ISBN-10: 0553102974

Currently 3.5/5 Stars.

Sing Me No Lullaby (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9780822210320
ISBN-10: 0822210320
Genre: Literature & Fiction