Ashley Montagu: A Brief Synopsis
of his Contributions to
Healthy Human Nurturing
(Part II of II)
by Mizin P. Kawasaki, MD
Human beings are highly
educable
Given the fact that human beings have evolved as
a highly educable species, we must recognize the tremendous impact of education
on our views toward rearing children.
Dr. Montagu writes the following: “Because
man has traded instincts for a capacity for learning, he is capable of learning
more unsound things, as well as sound ones, than any other living
creature. And this, indeed, he has
done. The result is not wisdom but
confusion” (Montagu 1971, 11).
Dr. Montagu's elucidation of faulty education is
remarkably insightful and relevant to the confusion so many mothers and fathers
face today in our society. Basically,
women are confused and quite a bit less wise (as men are) because they have
learned unsound information about mothering, nurturing, and children's
psychological and emotional development.
Misconceptions about
child-rearing
It takes courage to identify the root problem of
modern day misconceptions about child-rearing, and Dr. Montagu has done this in
order to rectify the problem. For
example, foremost in unsound learning is the belief that breastfeeding is
merely a source of physical nourishment and that bottle-feeding is just as
good, if not a whole lot easier.
There is abundant evidence, as discussed briefly
earlier, that refutes this erroneous notion.
The importance of early breastfeeding (right after birth) is critical to
the development of cooperation between the mother and infant dyad. Early breastfeeding also reinforces the love
a caring mother already feels for her newborn.
Breastfeeding reinforces
mother-infant bonding
In fact, breastfeeding helps to maintain the
maternal drive via the physiologically mediated release of prolactin (Montagu
1979, 189). The mother-child
relationship requires work and dedication, and it improves as the two individuals
interact with each other frequently and reciprocate love and affection
consistently.
Through breastfeeding, mothers transmit the
meaning of human intimacy and love to their children. They also provide them with untold
psychological and physical benefits.
Better education
The eradication of unsound thinking can only
occur with correct and sound education.
In the case of human development, Dr. Montagu has been attempting to
elucidate the true nature of children for many decades by providing sound and
accurate information.
If we learn anything in life, it should be to
learn what it means for us to be born as human beings and in what ways we can
optimize our positive human potentialities.
In order to optimize human development, we must understand what makes us
unique as human beings.
In an article written in 1971, Dr. Montagu
discusses the child from the perspective of human evolution. He states:
As a consequence of the unique character of man’s
evolution to increasing dependence on, and interdependence with his fellowman,
an increasingly high premium was put on the ability to cooperate ... the traits
that have been under the unremitting action of positive selection pressure have
been the ability to love, to cooperate, to minister to the needs of the
dependent infant, loss of instincts, development of educability, and intelligence.
(Montagu 1971, 12)
Children learn the ability to love and cooperate
only in an environment that allows for the development of such abilities. When a helpless infant needs assistance, may
it be in the form of cuddling, nourishment, warmth, or even cleanliness, it is
crucial that a human being responds to that need with affection and loving
interaction.
The importance of
loving, nurturing care
Dr. Montagu writes of Frederick II (1194-1250),
Emperor of Germany, who was so curious about infant language development that
he ordered a group of infants to be cared for completely in the absence of
cuddling and spoken words. He waited to
hear which language the children would speak spontaneously.
The tragic result was that all the children
died, “for they could not live without the petting and joyful faces and loving
words of their foster mothers” (Montagu 1986, 101-102). This is a lesson that was learned in the 13th
century, and we should all learn this lesson anew. Infants need to know that they are loved and
understood to survive in good mental and physical health.
The meaning of love
The crucial contribution that Dr. Montagu has
made with regard to the concept of love is that it is a behavioral need that
can be learned only by first being loved by others. In fact, Dr. Montagu underscores the
importance of love: it is an
indispensably necessity for the healthy development of human beings.
In 1970, Dr. Montagu wrote an article called “A
Scientist Looks at LOVE.” He writes that
“love is, without any question, the most important experience in the life of a
human being (Montagu 1970, 463).
Dr. Montagu characterizes love to be
demonstrative, sacrificial, self-abnegative, unconditional, and supportive,
such that one will “never commit the supreme treason that one human being can
commit against another, namely, failure or desertion when you are most needed”
(Montagu 1970, 467).
The newborn’s true
nature
The true nature of the newborn baby is such that
he is highly organized and sensitively attuned to being loved and to love. It is important to understand that the baby
needs to love as much as it needs to be loved.
The innate nature of human beings dictates that
one should “live as if to live and love were one” (Montagu 1970, 467). Receiving love early in life is essential to
enabling a child to learn to love as an adult.
Lack-love infancy has a severely negative impact upon the development of
personality, which may result in “criminal, delinquent, neurotic, psychopathic,
asocial, and similar forms of unfortunate behavior” (Montagu 1970, 465).
The first six years of
life
It is essential that, in the first six years of
life, a child learns to love by being loved by a primary caregiver. This is ideally the biological mother, but it
can be a loving substitute caregiver.
Ideal human development with the capacity to love and be loved will be
learned by a child from a loving and wise mother and it should be the
birthright of all children to experience such an upbringing.
Understanding love
Dr. Montagu writes: “When we understand the meaning of love we
understand that it is the only thing in the world of which one can never give
too much. The counterfeit of love—overprotectiveness
and ‘smothering’—is really a disguised hostility. Genuine love can never harm or inhibit; it
can only benefit and create freedom and order.
Love has a firmness and discipline of its own for which there can never
be a substitute. No child can ever be
spoiled by love, and there are few if any human problems which cannot be best
solved by its application (1970, 467).
Dr. Montagu refutes the unfounded myths of
babies being selfish and disorganized creatures. He explains that the newborn needs to be
loved and to love in order to develop social competence and produce a sense of
relatedness to others.
The natural development
of discipline
Inherent in the dynamics of the loving
relationship between parent and child exists the natural discipline that will
enable the child to develop cooperative behavior. Since babies are born helpless and they are in
need of assistance, it is the satisfaction of their needs that engenders
cooperative behavior in the child.
Satisfaction and fulfillment create the basis of
a trusting relationship which will allow wise parents to guide their children
to live cooperatively in an organized social structure. The conception of discipline as an externally
mediated force is erroneous and harmful to the healthy development of children.
The true nature of
corporal punishment
The use of force, such as corporal punishment,
indicates parental loss of self-control and discipline, as well as a
disorganized frame of mind. It is
impossible for a parent to force discipline upon a child when the former has
lost his or her own sense of discipline.
It is only love that can foster cooperative and
disciplined behavior, and it is a truism that one can never be spoiled by receiving
too much love. Love should be
unconditional. Nevertheless, in the
pursuit of producing better behaved children, parents often put conditional
terms on their love. The result is the
exact opposite of what they intended, for conditional love creates insecurity
and mistrust.
The true meaning of love is lost and demeaned, and it leaves the impression that love is a tool for manipulation. Ironically, parents may complain that their children manipulate them when it may be the reverse. After all, the parent who wishes a child to behave in a specific way may use any means, including corporal punishment, to get the desired result.
The meaning of good
health
Dr. Montagu has defined health at a minimum to
be “the ability to love, to work, to play, and to think soundly” (1989,
73). He encourages us to appreciate the
emotional development of children. Dr.
Montagu (1989, 107) recognizes the following universal basic behavioral needs
of children:
The Basic Behavioral Needs
1. Love 16. Speech
2. Friendship 17. Flexibility
3. Sensitivity 18. Experimental Mindedness
4. Think soundly 19. Explorativeness
5. To Know 20. Resiliency
6. To Learn 21. Enthusiasm
7. Work 22. Sense of Humor
8. Organization 23. Joyfulness
9. Curiosity 24. Laughter and Tears
10. Wonder 25.
Optimism
11. Playfulness 26. Honesty and Trust
12. Imagination 27. Compassionate Intelligence
13. Creativity 28. Song
14. Openmindedness 29. Dance
15. Touch
Dr. Montagu writes that the satisfaction of
these basic behavioral needs is as essential to the healthy development of
children as the satisfaction of the basic physical needs for oxygen, food,
liquid, rest, activity, sleep, bowel and bladder elimination, avoidance of
dangerous or painful stimuli (1989, 106-107).
Human beings’ many
behavioral needs
This all-encompassing list of behavioral needs
is rich in its breadth. When children
are able to satisfy these needs, they are fulfilled. In short, Dr. Montagu identifies the child as
the forerunner of humanity and states that the child is “the possessor of all
those traits which, when healthily developed, lead to a healthy and fulfilled
human being and thus to a healthy and fulfilled humanity” (1989, 107).
Dr. Montagu also introduces the concept of
neoteny in his book Growing Young to
explain why these basic behavioral needs should be nurtured throughout
life. Neoteny refers “to the retention
into adult life of those human traits associated with childhood, with fetuses,
and even with the fetal and youthful traits of our own species” (Montagu 1989,
1).
Human development and growth must be recognized
as an ongoing and continuing process that has few clearly demarcated
stages. If anything, Dr. Montagu writes
that development “represents a continuous series of changes toward greater
complexity and competence, changes which merge imperceptibly into one another”
(1989, 102).
The false dichotomy
between childhood and adulthood
From this perspective, it becomes obvious that
the modern view of childhood and adulthood as being two discrete stages of life
thwarts the potential development of most human beings. Natural and healthy development would allow
the characteristics of childhood to be nourished for the duration of one’s
lifetime and not just for the so-called period of childhood.
The barriers we have created between childhood
and adulthood obscure the true nature of human development and results in the
failure to recognize the genius of childhood as a common human possession. As Dr. Montagu notes, only highly creative
individuals nurture the genius of childhood in themselves and fuel their
creativity with the enthusiasm of their childhood.
In truth, human beings of all ages should be
growing young by striving to satisfy their basic behavioral needs, which are
neotenous for they appear so early in human life. Dr. Montagu hopes that human beings can
become fulfilled children and adults instead of unfulfilled children and
“deteriorated children” or “adulterated” adults.
The constant state of
learning
The true nature of human beings is to remain in
a constant state of learning, so it is imperative to recognize the impact of
the learning process on human development.
Human beings possess the potential to gain wisdom through the learning process,
which is the “increase in the strength of any act as a result of training—that
is, through repetition” (Montagu 1976, 235).
For example, the ability to speak is a result of
learning to develop the capacity to speak.
If a child is not exposed to at least one person who speaks to him, that
child will not be able to speak, for his capacity to speak has not been
nurtured.
The importance of education
The interaction between one’s genetic capacity
and one’s social environment determines the extent to which one’s individual
abilities are developed. It is the
function of education, within and outside the home, to enable all human beings
to learn how to realize the unique capabilities with which we are endowed.
In 1973, Dr. Montagu wrote that the root origin
of the word “education” is from the Latin educare,which means “to care for, to nourish,
and to cause to grow” (1973, 35-38). What
needs to be nourished and caused to grow is “the basic behavioral needs of the
child, the needs for growth and development as a physically and mentally
healthy person, a whole person, one who is able to love, to work, to play, and
to think soundly” (Montagu 1989, 15).
Dr. Montagu states eloquently that education is
“the nurturing means through which the wealth of humanity is realized in the
fulfillment of the unique potentialities of each of its members” (1989,
54).
Formal education
Comprehending education from this perspective
underscores the significant role of the school in teaching children who have a
potentially unlimited capacity to learn.
Mere instruction in the three r’s
of reading, writing, and arithmetic, which is the inculcation of knowledge, is
instruction. It should be a very small
component of education since it fails to nourish healthy human development.
Dr. Montagu envisions an emphasis on the fourth r, which he identifies as human
relations. He assesses this to be the
most important r. He argues that all educational policies must
be based on understanding the foremost importance of teaching the art and
science of human relations.
The importance of good
teachers
He writes that “we must train for humanity, and
training in reading, writing, and arithmetic must be given in a manner
calculated to serve the ends of that humanity” (Montagu 1966, 111). It is apparent that teachers need to be
qualified to teach human relations, must be exemplary in human relations, and should
be temperamentally fit to teach.
Teaching should be recognized as the most
important profession, and society should compensate well those who are truly
qualified to enter the field. The
transformation of our educational system will occur once small communities
begin to develop enlightened views of education and organize support for
changes.
An ideal school
Citing an ideal school his friend designed, Dr.
Montagu writes that school should be a mutually shared learning community. The principle driving force of this school would
be performance.
Every child would have the opportunity to
establish an individual identity. This
would be accomplished under the tutelage of scholars and teachers, as well as through
interaction with children in other age groups.
The children in this school, as a result of such a humane education,
would be psychologically healthy and strong, fulfilled, employable, and most
expert in relating to other human beings.
The nurturing of a
child’s potential
The ideal goal for all childrenwould be to experience an education
which would teach them to realize their unique potentialities and to become
humane and forever youthful persons. In
order to achieve this goal, society would have to place the highest priority on
educating children humanely, while at the same time recognizing their basic
behavioral and physical needs.
In such a child-centered society, Dr. Montagu
writes, “childhood, the child in everyone, becomes the transformational value
at the center of every social usage and institution” (1989, 199). It is only in a child-centered society that
human life can be realized for its true purpose, which is “to live as if to
live and love were one” (Montagu 1973, 37).
Many different communities have child-centered
priorities, allowing children to learn about the cultural values of their
people and their environment. Australian
aboriginal and Eskimo societies are examples, whereas modern Western society is
certainly not child-centered.
Misconceived child-rearing
practices
Misconceived notions about childhood perpetuate
Western society's unhealthy child-rearing practices. Children are mistakenly thought to be born
sinful, disordered, and in need of order that is imposed upon them by an
external source of authority, namely parents.
As Dr. Montagu explains, order cannot be imposed, but only revealed, and
authority is the mastery that persons gain when they have revealed the
operational nature of things (1989, 200).
Based upon this view of order and authority, it
should be manifest that the relationship between parent and child should be one
of cooperation and open communication.
If society as a whole would recognize the basic needs of children, great
improvements in communication and mutual understanding would occur among human
beings of all ages.
The ability to relate to
others
Human beings do not live isolated from one
another, and our evolutionary background emphasizes that cooperation and love
have enabled humankind to survive. In
describing early food-gathering and hunting peoples, Dr. Montagu notes that a
high premium was placed upon “the ability to relate in such a manner to others
that you confer survival benefits in a creatively enlarging manner upon them,
for it enabled them to live more fully realized than they would have done
otherwise” (1973, 37).
Humans have been “genetically selected for an
ability to be good, to be warm, loving creatures, deeply involved in the
welfare of their fellow creatures and the whole of inanimate nature” (1973,
37). Nowhere is this genetic selection
revealed more clearly than in the mother-infant relationship, which Dr. Montagu
has praised consistently throughout his writings.
Mother-infant
relationship defines love
He has written often that it is universally
acknowledged that the mother-infant relationship defines the very essence of
love. Here we return to the subject at
the beginning of this essay: the
birthright of every child is ideal human development.
If we ponder human history, we will understand
why we are living on this planet Earth as human beings. We are here to express our highest potential,
and we can do this when we strive “to live as if to live and love were one.”
This behavior can be learned easily early in
life (and with difficulty later in life) through the mutually beneficial
mother-infant relationship. Dr. Montagu defines society as “the nurturing life
system that generates and extends the neotenous traits of humanity with every
generation” (1989,. 199). He also writes
that the primary neotenous trait all human beings possess is the need to love.
The importance of
cooperation
Dr. Montagu has written often that the human
species has been able to survive as a result of cooperative and loving behavior
between individuals. Unfortunately,
cooperation is no longer viewed by many individuals as being the decisive force
in human survival.
Instead, many view life as a competition and
struggle, wherein only the fittest survive.
The principle of natural selection has been supported by much work, but
Dr. Montagu enjoins us to recognize that cooperation is as prominent a behavior
as is competition.
Dr. Montagu notes that Charles Darwin was among
the first to understand the significance of cooperation and, in The Descent of Man (1871), he strongly
emphasized the principle of cooperation. Darwinism, however, was utilized by 19th
century English aristocracy, entrepreneurs, and social philosophers to exploit
workers and those of other “races” and to maintain class divisions (Montagu
1962, 16-21).
Cooperation is
overemphasized
To this day, most people believe that
competition is the law of life and that if one does not look out for oneself,
surely no one else will. This harmful
view of life exalts the principle of natural selection and neglects the
importance of cooperation in our evolution.
It must be recognized that “social, cooperative
behavior is simply the continuation and development of the parent-offspring relationship
... Cooperative, social behavior is therefore as old as life itself” (1962,
100). The drive for cooperation exists
in our protoplasm, as Dr. Montagu writes, and this drive may be suppressed but
never destroyed.
A terrible strain is placed on the adaptive
capacities of most persons as a result of prolonged suppression of the
cooperative drive and overemphasis on competition. The developmental drives of love and
cooperation cannot be denied fulfillment without causing self-destruction. We can avert such disaster only by educating
ourselves in the true nature of our biological drives and understanding the
significance of our cooperative and loving natures.
Women’s ability to
change humankind
Dr. Montagu reminds us that we are the
problem-solving species. As we approach
the end of the twentieth century, women are faced with the truly daunting
challenge of asserting themselves in the primary role of humanizing
mankind. When we realize that humanity
begins with a single individual, the significance of nurturing one humane being
becomes evident.
Dr. Montagu reminds us that “the life of every
human being is a part of our own, for we are involved in mankind ... each one
of us is responsible for the other” (1962, 102). As more parents understand better the true
nature of children’s development and respect their basic behavioral needs, the
humanizing effects of such nurturing will permeate all society.
It is women who can initiate the creation of a
humane society, and it will be their progeny, both male and female, who will
realize its full development. These
children will understand that “the only true religion, the only true knowledge,
the only true science, is love, is goodness, is the ability to confer survival
benefits in a creatively enlarging manner upon others” (Montagu 1973, 38).
Works Cited
Montagu, Ashley. 1966. On being human.
———.1970. A scientist looks at LOVE. Phi Delta Kappan, 51(9): 466-
467.
———. 1971. What is a child? National Elementary Principal 51 (1):8-16.
———.
University
Business
54(4):35-38.
———. 1976. The
nature of human aggression.
University Press.
———. 1979. Breastfeeding and its relation to
morphological, behavioral,
and psychocultural
development. Breastfeeding and food policy
in
a hungry world.
———. 1986. Touching:
The human significance of the skin.
Harper & Row.
———. 1992. The
natural superiority of women.
Books.
———. 1989. Growing
young.
———. 1996. The
elephant man. 3rd ed.
