A List
4/16/07

CULTURE-BIOLOGY CONFLICT TOPIC FOR ST. LAWRENCE LECTURE

CANTON - David Barash, professor of psychology at the University of Washington in Seattle, will give a talk at St. Lawrence University called "The Hare and the Tortoise: The Conflict between Culture and Biology in Human Affairs, or When Baboons Drive Hummers." The lecture, on Thursday, April 26, at 5 p.m. in the auditorium of Hepburn Hall, is open to the public, free of charge.

Barash states, "Human beings are animals, yet also more than animals. On the one hand, we are the products of evolution by natural selection, subject to biology; on the other, we are masters of technology, nearly godlike in our ability to modify our environment and, increasingly, ourselves. No other living thing experiences such a divided existence. The resulting conflict is one of the keys to our modern 'human dilemma,' including war, overpopulation, environmental problems and many social instabilities, with effects from the international to the personal."

Barash is the author of two dozen books, including The Myth of Monogamy, written with his wife, psychiatrist Judith Lipton; and Madame Bovary's Ovaries: A Darwinian Look at Literature, co-authored by his daughter, Nanelle Barash, a student at Swarthmore College. His studies span animal behavior and social psychology, with concentrations in sociobiology, psychological aspects of the arms race and nuclear war, peace studies, and animal behavior and evolution.

The lecture at St. Lawrence is this year's Romer Lecture, established to honor the late Emeritus Professor of Physics Alfred Romer, who had been associated with the University for more than 50 years, and the Niles Memorial Lecture on Science and Religion.

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