Sheila Niles 32-B-2 FPE

BOOK REVIEWS

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MEN IN GROUPS by Lionel Tiger, Random House, New York; 217pp plus intro. plus 28 bibl. plus 9 index, $6.95 (1969)

It has taken a while to get around to this one, partly because 1969 produced a regular flood of books suitable for review. Perhaps some readers will feel that I am using Dr. Tiger to fill up the present shortage, but they will only be half right. He does have a message for anyone interested in gender roles, and some cogent reminders that no matter how feminine we look and feel, we are still M-E-N.

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The author is an anthropologist and sociologist, and so is naturally aligned with other biologically oriented scientists who are increasingly critical of the psychologists. If you are among those to whom the dogma that the human infant enters life with a "blank slate" where all other animals have inherited behavioral tendencies is a quasi-religious sub- ject, stop right here, or prepare yourself for an attack of apoplexy. Dr. Tiger does take pains to suggest the compromise that human be- havior is probably a mixture of inherited and learned traits, but there is no compromise whatsoever in his belief that men and women differ in one basic trait that has nothing to do with anatomical sex. The trait of character he calls "male bonding", and he makes a very per- suasive case for its reality and importance in all human affairs. In particular, this tendency of men to form teams, working groups, hunting parties, etc. is used to explain why men so universally exer-

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