Article
ID: CBB001213793

Public Science of the Savage Mind: Contesting Cultural Anthropology in the Cold War Classroom (2013)

unapi
Public understanding of science Cold War Cultural anthropology Science education and teaching 20th century, late

What is human about human beings? How did they get that way? How can they be made more so? These three questions formed the basis of a fifth-grade social studies curriculum project developed in the 1960s called Man: A Course of Study, or MACOS. In the years between the curriculum's development in the 1960s and its controversial implementation in the 1970s, two separate sets of concerns served to problematize the use of anthropological materials in public school classrooms. On the one hand, MACOS designers were wary of the possibly racist interpretations of exploring so-called primitive cultures in the classroom. On the other, conservative textbook reformers objected to claims that all cultural solutions to biological problems were morally equivalent. Once MACOS earned a place in national news, it came to embody both hopes for the redemption of American democratic society and fears about the violent nature of humans, depending on one's political perspective. These mixed messages eventually undermined the long-term success of the program as public science.

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Authors & Contributors
Vincent Kiernan
Wendt, Helge
Scott, David Meerman
Phillips, Christopher J.
Jurek, Richard
Zachmann, Karin
Journals
Public Understanding of Science
Technology and Culture
Science Communication
Representations
Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences
Journal of American History
Publishers
University of Pittsburgh Press
University of California, Los Angeles
The MIT Press
Stanford University Press
Springer
Oxford University Press
Concepts
Public understanding of science
Cold War
Science education and teaching
Science and politics
Nuclear weapons; atomic weapons
Physics
People
Laurence, William L.
Begle, Edward Griffith
Time Periods
20th century, late
21st century
20th century, early
20th century
Places
United States
Soviet Union
Great Britain
Cuba
Netherlands
Europe
Institutions
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty; Partial Test Ban Treaty; Limited Test Ban Treaty (1963)
Federation of American Scientists
International Geophysical Year (IGY)
Westinghouse Electric Corporation
New York Times
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