''The Territorial Imperative: A Personal Inquiry Into the Animal Origins of Property and Nations'' is a 1966 nonfiction book by American writer

Robert Ardrey Robert Ardrey (October 16, 1908 – January 14, 1980) was an American playwright, screenwriter and science writing, science writer perhaps best known for ''The Territorial Imperative'' (1966). After a Broadway (theatre), Broadway and Cinema of th ...

. It characterizes an instinct among humans toward

territoriality In ethology, territory is the sociographical area that an animal consistently defends against conspecific competition (or, occasionally, against animals of other species) using agonistic behaviors or (less commonly) real physical aggression. ...

and the implications of this to property ownership and nation building. ''The Territorial Imperative'' was influential at the time, and encouraged public interest in human origins. ''The Territorial Imperative'' is the second book in Ardrey's

Nature of Man Series The ''Nature of Man Series'' is a four-volume series of works in paleoanthropology by the prolific playwright, screenwriter, and science writer Robert Ardrey. The books in the series were published between 1961 and 1976. The series majorly undermi ...

; it is preceded by ''

African Genesis ''African Genesis: A Personal Investigation into the Animal Origins and Nature of Man'', usually referred to as ''African Genesis'', is a 1961 nonfiction work by the American writer Robert Ardrey. It posited the hypothesis that man evolved on the ...

'' (1961) and followed by ''

The Social Contract ''The Social Contract'', originally published as ''On the Social Contract; or, Principles of Political Right'' (), is a 1762 French-language book by the Republic of Geneva, Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The book theorizes about how ...

'' (1970) and '' The Hunting Hypothesis'' (1976). It was illustrated by Ardrey's wife, the

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

n actress and illustrator Berdine Ardrey (née Grunewald). Ardrey dedicated ''The Territorial Imperative'' to

Henry Eliot Howard Henry Eliot Howard (13 November 1873 – 26 December 1940) was an English amateur ornithologist, noted for being one of the first to describe territoriality behaviours in birds in a detailed manner. His ideas on territoriality were influential ...

, who was noted for being one of the first to describe in detail the territorial behaviors of birds.

Synopsis

''The Territorial Imperative'' develops the theses originally introduced in ''African Genesis: A Personal Investigation into the Animal Origins and Nature of Man'', which was published five years earlier. In ''African Genesis'', Ardrey posited that man originated in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

instead of Asia, that he is driven by inherited instincts to acquire land and defend territory, and that the development of weapons was a fundamental turning point in his evolution.Hunt, George P. "Provocateur in Anthropology." ''Time'' 26 August 1966: 2. Print. ''The Territorial Imperative'' further explores these ideas with a special emphasis on man's distinct preoccupation with the concept of territory. It goes on to elucidate the role that plays in modern human society in phenomena such as property ownership and nation building.

Controversy

''The Territorial Imperative'' caused significant scientific and popular controversy. In it Ardrey restated and developed his challenge to the reigning methodological assumption of the social sciences, that human behavior is fundamentally distinct from animal behavior. As he writes in ''The Territorial Imperative'', "The dog barking at you from behind his master's fence acts for a motive indistinguishable from that of his master when the fence was built."Ardrey, Robert. "The Territorial Imperative: A Personal Inquiry into the Animal Origins of Property and Nations." New York: Atheneum. 1966. Print.

Robert Wokler Robert Lucien Wokler (6 December 1942 – 30 July 2006) was a British historian who was a leading scholar of the political thought of the Enlightenment. Biography He was born in Auch, France, to Isaac and Ilona Wochiler, both war refugees; th ...

wrote of Ardrey's challenge to the established life sciences:

What ought to be studied, according to Ardrey, are the relations between individuals that stem from the innate and universal attributes of animal life, whereas cultural anthropologists who detect a fundamental discontinuity between mankind and other zoological species are just impervious to the revolutionary ideas of Darwinism which have reverberated throughout all the life sciences apart from their own.Wokler, Robert. "Perfectible Apes in Decadent Cultures: Rousseau's Anthropology Revisited." ''Daedalus'' Vol. 107, No. 3, Rousseau for Our Time (Summer, 1978), pp. 107-134. Print.

In 1968, two years after the publication of ''The Territorial Imperative,''

Ashley Montagu Montague Francis Ashley-Montagu (born Israel Ehrenberg; June 28, 1905November 26, 1999) was a British-American anthropologist who popularized the study of topics such as race and gender and their relation to politics and development. He was the ...

organized fourteen scientists to write essays in opposition to Ardrey's work (and the similarly aligned work of

Konrad Lorenz Konrad Zacharias Lorenz (Austrian ; 7 November 1903 – 27 February 1989) was an Austrian zoology, zoologist, ethology, ethologist, and ornithologist. He shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Karl von ...

, ''

On Aggression ''On Aggression'' (, "So-called Evil: on the natural history of aggression") is a 1963 book by the ethology, ethologist Konrad Lorenz; it was translated into English in 1966. As he writes in the prologue, "the subject of this book is ''aggression' ...

''). That volume became ''Man and Aggression''. Montagu would eventually edit another volume in opposition to Ardrey,Webster, Bayard. "Robert Ardrey Dies; Writer on Behavior." New York: The New York Times. January 16, 1980. Print and the increasingly heated debate stirred popular interest in human origins. By

Carmel Schrire Carmel Schrire (born 15 May 1941)John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, ''Reports of the President and the Treasurer'' (John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, 1989), p. 83. is a professor of anthropology at Rutgers University whose resea ...

's account, "Ashley Montagu edited two collections of writings aimed at countering the views of both Ardrey and Konrad Lorenz. ... Despite this, Ardrey's popularity did not flag, and his writings opened the fields of paleoanthropology, ethnology, and anthropology to a wide readership." The opposition of these two viewpoints became a major theme in the social science of the time.

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 ...

, who authored ''The Imperial Animal'' (1972) with

Lionel Tiger Lionel Tiger (born February 5, 1937) is a Canadian-American anthropologist. He is the Charles Darwin Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University and co-Research Director of the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. Early life and education Born ...

, wrote of the opposition:

I was a great friend of Robert Ardrey, and had been known publicly to defend his name and honor from the assault of the anti-Ardreyites, including Ashley Montagu. ... Ashley Montagu always carefully distanced himself from what he thought were our erroneous conclusions about human aggression. We returned the favor, even calling him and his school "the Christian Scientists of anthropology" for their refusal to accept the reality of human evil: that it was an essential part of being human and could not be just wished away. We in turn were included eventually among the villains in his "new litany of innate depravity." And so it went.

Some essays in the Montagu volume, as well as much other criticism of Ardrey's work, claimed that, because it asserted the role of instinctual aggression in determining man's behavior, his work excused aggression or saw the human as innately evil. Ardrey differed, claiming instead that an awareness of human nature was necessary to truly pursue civilization. For example, Ardrey, in a 1971 ''Penthouse'' interview, asserted "I don't think human beings are that bad at all—I think they are absolutely marvellous. We've got to stop kidding ourselves, stop lying to ourselves, living with a delusion about ourselves."Segall, Harvey. "Robert Ardrey." Interview with Robert Ardrey in ''Penthouse'' Volume 5, Number 11. pp. 28-33

Criticism

A 1966 review by

Edmund Leach Sir Edmund Ronald Leach FRAI FBA (7 November 1910 – 6 January 1989) was a British social anthropologist and academic. He served as provost of King's College, Cambridge from 1966 to 1979. He was also president of the Royal Anthropolo ...

said Ardrey was "a mine of scientific-sounding misinformation" and his book was "noisy and foolish". A 1967 review by

Patrick Bateson Sir Paul Patrick Gordon Bateson, (31 March 1938 – 1 August 2017) was an English biologist with interests in ethology and phenotypic plasticity. Bateson was a professor at the University of Cambridge and served as president of the Zoologi ...

said "The arguments on which he bases his conclusions are shot through with such elementary mistakes, and his definitions are so loose, that he will surely mislead anyone who takes him seriously . . . Ardrey seems to be scarcely aware of the interactions involved in biological processes and to know nothing of the scientific method." A 1970 review by

Carroll Quigley Carroll Quigley (; November 9, 1910 – January 3, 1977) was an American historian and theorist of the evolution of civilizations. He is remembered for his teaching work as a professor at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown Univer ...

said "Ardrey pretends to be a scientist, or at least a science reporter; but in this book there is no more science than there is in a comic strip . . . It is true that Ardrey has read a great deal about animal behavior, but he never seems to grasp what it all means, and his biases prevent him from seeing what is really there." A 1970 review by C. E. S. Franks said "however well written they may be, his books are neither scientific works nor the works of a scientist. Robert Ardrey has misunderstood two of the basic concepts of the new biology, "aggression" and "territory", and has misapplied them in discussing human society".

Legacy

''The Territorial Imperative'' was widely read and exerted a cultural influence.Graves, Ralph. "A 'Scientific Amateur' Expands his Territory." ''Time'' 11 September 1970: 1. Print: "Both of these books enjoyed, along with the scientific uproar they created, a wide general readership, and Ardrey, who describes himself as a 'scientific amateur,' today can claim major credit for having introduced the public to the new field of ethology, the study of animal behavior and its relationship to man." It quickly became an international bestseller and was translated into dozens of languages. Ardrey's work in general, and ''The Territorial Imperative'' in particular, is often credited with arousing popular interest in ethology, anthropology, and human origins. Geoffrey Gorer, for example, in his ''Encounter'' review of ''The Territorial Imperative'', writes: "Almost without question, Robert Ardrey is today the most influential writer in English dealing with the innate or instinctive attributes of human nature, and the most skilled populariser of the findings of paleo-anthropologists, ethologists, and biological experimenters." Ralph Graves claims " rdreytoday can claim major credit for having introduced the public to the new field of ethology, the study of animal behavior and its relationship to man." Commenting upon Ardrey's legacy on the occasion of his death, the South African anthropologist Dr. Phillip Tobias stated, "He has made an incalculable contribution to the science of human evolution. Thousands of people around the world, especially in the United States, were made aware of the fascination and the importance of studies on man's place in nature hrough his writing" The work influenced several notable figures.

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American filmmaker and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Stanley Kubrick filmography, his films were nearly all adaptations of novels or sho ...

cited Ardrey as an inspiration for his films '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'' (1968) and ''

A Clockwork Orange ''A Clockwork Orange'' may refer to: * ''A Clockwork Orange'' (novel), a 1962 novel by Anthony Burgess ** ''A Clockwork Orange'' (film), a 1971 film directed by Stanley Kubrick based on the novel *** ''A Clockwork Orange'' (soundtrack), the film ...

'' (1971). (From th
Foreword
by

Arthur C. Clarke Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 191719 March 2008) was an English science fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. Clarke co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film '' 2001: A ...

.) The strategic analyst Andrew Marshall and U.S. Secretary of Defense

James Schlesinger James Rodney Schlesinger (February 15, 1929 – March 27, 2014) was an American economist and statesman who was best known for serving as Secretary of Defense from 1973 to 1975 under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Prior to becom ...

are known to have discussed ''The Territorial Imperative'' in connection to military-strategic thinking.Somit, Albert. et al. ''Human Nature and Public Policy: An Evolutionary Approach.'' 2003. Palgrave Macmillan. P. 24. Print Ardrey went on to publish two more books on human origins and the nature of man, ''The Social Contract: A Personal Inquiry into the Evolutionary Sources of Order and Disorder'' (1970) and ''The Hunting Hypothesis: A Personal Conclusion Concerning the Evolutionary Nature of Man'' (1976). He continued to publish influential works in the field of anthropology until his death in 1980.

References

External links