Separation and Its Discontents: Toward an Evolutionary Theory of Anti-Semitism
Particular attention is paid to three major manifestations of Western anti-Semitism: the development of institutionalized anti-Semitism in the Roman Empire, the Iberian Inquisitions, and the phenomenon of Nazism. All of these movements exhibited a powerful gentile group cohesion in opposition to Judaism as a group strategy, and MacDonald argues that each may be analyzed as a reaction to the presence of Judaism as a highly successful group evolutionary strategy. Because of the repeated occurrence of anti-Semitism, Jews have developed a highly flexible array of strategies to minimize its effects. These include: crypsis during periods of persecution, controls on Jewish behavior likely to lead to anti-Semitism, and the manipulation of gentile attitudes toward Jews. This controversial work challenges prevailing views. Students and scholars involved with evolutionary approaches to human behavior and Jewish Studies will be interested, as will social scientists and historians in general. |
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... positive distinctness , a positive social identity , and increased self - esteem as a result of this process . Within the group there is a great deal of cohesiveness , positive emotional regard , and camarade- rie , while relationships ...
... positive characteristics of the ingroup . They do so precisely because of this theoretically primitive need to categorize themselves as a member of a group with character- istics that reflect well on the group as a whole and therefore ...
... positive mood and feelings of power and control , self - efficacy , a sense of personal meaning , self- esteem , etc. An evolutionary approach would emphasize the importance of evolved emotional systems as central to motivation ...
Contents
THEMES OF ANTISEMITISM | 27 |
REACTIVE ANTISEMITISM IN | 89 |
THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD | 115 |
Copyright | |
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Separation and Its Discontents: Toward an Evolutionary Theory of Anti-Semitism Kevin MacDonald No preview available - 2003 |
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Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Development Robert G. Burgess,Kevin MacDonald Limited preview - 2005 |