Lionel Tiger (born February 5, 1937) is a

Canadian-American Canadian Americans () are Citizenship of the United States, American citizens or in some uses residents whose ancestry is wholly or partly Canadians, Canadian, or citizens of either country who hold dual citizenship. Today, many Canadian American ...

anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...

. He is the Charles Darwin Professor of Anthropology at

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

and co-Research Director of the

Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation was established by Harry Guggenheim to support research on violence, aggression, and dominance. The foundation writes: "He was convinced that solid, thoughtful, scholarly and scientific research, experimentati ...

Early life and education

Born in 1937 in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, he is a graduate of

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

, and the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

, England. He is also a consultant to the

U.S. Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, t ...

on the future of

biotechnology Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...

. Lionel Tiger lives in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, and regularly contributes to mainstream media such as ''

Psychology Today ''Psychology Today'' is an American media organization with a focus on psychology and human behavior. The publication began as a bimonthly magazine, which first appeared in 1967. The print magazine's reported circulation is 275,000 as of 2023. ...

'' and ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''.

Career

Lionel Tiger did not start out in the field of biology or anthropology, only taking one class that was required of him. Tiger started his path towards his later career with his study on the decolonization of Africa. While in Ghana and Nigeria on a summer fellowship, he studied

Kwame Nkrumah Francis Kwame Nkrumah (, 21 September 1909 – 27 April 1972) was a Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He served as Prime Minister of the Gold Coast (British colony), Gold Coast from 1952 until 1957, when it gained ...

, Ghana's first postcolonial president. Tiger wanted to find out if a theory that Max Weber had about the "routinization of charisma" would be applicable in the political realm of Ghana. While researching, he was inspired by Weber's questions and new discoveries in Africa by

Raymond Dart Raymond Arthur Dart (4 February 1893 – 22 November 1988) was an Australian anatomist and anthropologist, best known for his involvement in the 1924 discovery of the first fossil found of '' Australopithecus africanus'', an extinct hominin ...

and Lewis Leakey. Along with other studies that were being conducted at the time, including the discovery of DNA and that of research of primates in the wild, Tiger was inspired to do his own research on the human species, mainly that of males and the way they interact with one another. Since he noticed that primates and other animals in the wild created their own social structures between males and females (thanks to research conducted by

Jane Goodall Dame Jane Morris Goodall (; born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall; 3 April 1934), formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, is an English zoologist, Primatology, primatologist and Anthropology, anthropologist. She is considered the world's foremo ...

Desmond Morris Desmond John Morris FLS ''hon. caus.'' (born 24 January 1928) is an English zoologist, ethologist and surrealist painter, as well as a popular author in human sociobiology. He is known for his 1967 book ''The Naked Ape'', and for his televis ...

and

Irven DeVore Irven DeVore (October 7, 1934 – September 23, 2014) was an anthropologist and evolutionary biologist, and Curator of Primatology at Harvard University's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. He headed Harvard's Department of Anthropolo ...

), he wanted to see if there was a biological connection to social constructs. Tiger was fighting against the thought that "only humans displayed ongoing and intelligent agency..." He teamed up with

Robin Fox Robin Fox (July 15, 1934 – January 18, 2024) was a British-American anthropologist who wrote on the topics of incest avoidance, marriage systems, human and primate kinship systems, evolutionary anthropology, sociology and the history of ide ...

to write ''Men in Groups'' (1969) and is credited with coining the term "male-bonding." He argued that the bonds between males were just as important as those between males and females. In his book ''Men in Groups'' he introduced his hypothesis that there was an "evolutionary basis of the cross-cultural regularity of male bonds and groups." The book put Dr. Tiger in the headlines, some good and some bad. After writing ''Men in Groups'' he went on to continue his research, bringing forward controversial concepts in his book ''The Imperial Animal'' and ''Women in the Kibbutz.'' One of his latest works, ''The Decline of Males'' has also come under fire for his controversial view of birth control for women.

Works

Some of Tiger's works have included controversial concepts, including biogrammar, the biological origins of social interactions and the limitation of culture strictly by survival necessities, based on the also controversial

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a ...

theory of universal grammar. Tiger published a work, ''The Imperial Animal'', with

in 1971 that advocated a 'social carnivore theory' of human evolution. Tiger has predicted the higher status of women within society, in books such as ''The Decline of Males'' and ''Men in Groups''. He has also written books such as ''The Pursuit of Pleasure'', which discussed the concept that

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

has established the biological mechanisms of pleasure and that they have survival origins. Together with psychiatrist neuroscientist Michael McGuire, Tiger wrote ''God's Brain''.

Controversy

Tiger's advocacy for

men's rights The men's rights movement (MRM) is a branch of the men's movement. The MRM in particular consists of a variety of groups and individuals known as men's rights activists (MRAs) who focus on social issues, such as specific government services, wh ...

has led to him being called by Krikus Reviews "the mad scientist of

biological reductionism Reductionism is any of several related philosophical ideas regarding the associations between phenomena which can be described in terms of simpler or more fundamental phenomena. It is also described as an intellectual and philosophical positio ...

". His books make controversial claims, including that birth control for women has emasculated men and forever changed the family dynamic, that when women use birth control, they are taking power and choice away from the men in their lives, and that women working outside of the home leads to men's earning less and no longer functioning as "effective providers." Tiger has received death threats, bomb threats and threats of physical harm, and his book ''The Imperial Animal'' has been compared to ''Mein Kampf'' by

Maureen Duffy Maureen Patricia Duffy (born 21 October 1933) is an English poet, playwright, novelist and non-fiction author. Long an activist covering such issues as gay rights and animal rights, she campaigns especially on behalf of authors. She has receive ...

Books

* * * Tiger, Lionel; Shepher, Joseph (1975). ''Women in the Kibbutz''. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. . * * Tiger, Lionel (1987). ''The Manufacture of Evil: Ethics, Evolution and the Industrial System''. Harper Collins. . * * *

References

External links

Rutgers biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tiger, Lionel 1937 births Living people 20th-century Canadian non-fiction writers 20th-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian non-fiction writers 20th-century Canadian scientists 21st-century Canadian scientists Academics from Montreal Alumni of the London School of Economics Canadian anthropologists Canadian expatriate academics in the United Kingdom Canadian expatriate academics in the United States McGill University alumni Scientists from Montreal Writers from Montreal Rutgers University faculty Canadian expatriate writers 21st-century Canadian male writers Canadian male non-fiction writers