Christopher Boehm (1931–2021) was an American

cultural anthropologist Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The portman ...

with a subspecialty in primatology, who researched conflict resolution,

altruism Altruism is the moral principle, principle and moral courage, moral practice of concern for the welfare and/or happiness of other human kind, human beings or animals, resulting in a quality of life both material and spirituality, spiritual. It ...

, the evolution of morality, and feuding and warfare. He was also the Director of the Jane Goodall Research Center at

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8. ...

, a multi-media interactive database focusing on the social and moral behavior of world hunter gatherers. Boehm died on November 23, 2021 at the age of 90.

Education

Boehm received his Ph.D. in social anthropology from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

in 1972, and was later trained in ethological field techniques (1983).

Work

Boehm did field work with human societies such as the

Navajo People The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States. With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...

and the Rovca Tribes of Montenegro or Upper Morača River

Tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confl ...

,"usc" as well as primates such as wild chimpanzees, focusing on questions of morality in an evolutionary context. After analyzing data from 48 human societies spread across the globe, ranging from small hunting and gathering bands to more sedentary chiefdoms, Boehm suggested that all human societies likely practiced

egalitarianism Egalitarianism (), or equalitarianism, is a school of thought within political philosophy that builds from the concept of social equality, prioritizing it for all people. Egalitarian doctrines are generally characterized by the idea that all hu ...

before the domestication plants and animals, and that most of the time they did so very successfully. Boehm wrote: : "As long as followers remain vigilantly egalitarian because they understand the nature of domination and leaders remain cognizant of this ambivalence-based vigilance, deliberate control of leaders may remain for the most part highly routinized and ethnographically unobvious." Boehm identified the following mechanisms ensuring the what he called a "Reverse Dominance Hierarchy":

Public Opinion Public opinion is the collective opinion on a specific topic or voting intention relevant to a society. It is the people's views on matters affecting them. Etymology The term "public opinion" was derived from the French ', which was first use ...

, Criticism and Ridicule, Disobedience, and Extreme Sanctions. Further characteristics include ambivalence towards leaders and anticipation of domination.

Awards

Boehm won the Stirling Prize in Psychological Anthropology, and was a recipient of a

John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the art ...

and a fellowship at the School of Advanced Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Publications

Bibliography

* * * * * Boehm, C. (1986). Blood Revenge: The Enactment and Management of Conflict in Montenegro and Other Tribal Societies. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 984 book reprinted with revisions and new title * Boehm, C. (1984). Blood Revenge: The Anthropology of Feuding in Montenegro and Other Nonliterate Societies. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. * Boehm, C. (1983). Montenegrin Social Organization and Values: Political Ethnography of a Refuge Area Tribal Adaptation. New York: AMS Press.

References