Why Be Good? Minding Nature, Vol 9 No 3 Sept 2016.
Assume we know what “being good” is. Does culture help, hurt, or what?
A Better World, Run by Women. The Wall Street Journal, March 6, 2015.
Male biology has brought the world war, corruption and scandal. Women are poised to lead us to a better place.
The Jewish Body? What is That? (Der jüdische Körper? Was ist das?) Jewish Museum of Berlin Journal, 2014.
The answer is complex, ancient and modern, sad and joyful.
21st Century Vindications of Darwin. The Los Angeles Review of Books, July 31, 2012.
Darwin’s prediction that his theory would shed light on us has won the day in the modern behavioral and social sciences.
How Childhood Has Evolved. Chronicle of Higher Education/The Chronicle Review, May 9, 2010
How I came to write The Evolution of Childhood: Relationships, Emotion, Mind, and why it may be my most important book.
Darwin’s Truth, Jefferson’s Vision. Sociobiology and the Politics of Human Nature. American Prospect, July-August 1999
The Founders explicitly understood human nature, which is why they wrote the Constitution as they did.
Homosexuality. Encyclopedia Americana, 1991 edition.
My attempt, at the general editor’s invitation, to provide the basics for someone who might be wondering in, say, a small town library in Nebraska.
Childhood and the Family: An Anthropological View. Schoolbook, Winter 1990, Vol I, No I
Understanding the family’s origins and variety can be liberating for parents.
Caveman’s Legacy. Longevity, August 1990
Risk-taking, bad habits, and other costs of having evolved.
The “I” of the Storm. Los Angeles Times Magazine, January 8, 1989
How much does mental illness mitigate responsibility?
The Dawn of Wonder. Harvard Medical Alumni Bulletin, Summer 1988
This crucial human trait lies deep in our evolutionary history. (Excerpt from The Tangled Wing: Biological Constraints on the Human Spirit; also published in Psychology Today in 1982.
A Bias for Boys. American Baby’s Childbirth Educator, Summer 1988
Some countries abort and neglect girls, with dire future consequences.
In the Social Machine. Massachusetts Medicine, Nov.-Dec. 1987, Vol 2, No 6.
Even the modern science of healing makes no sense except in a social context.
Ear-benders, Pencil-pushers, and Other Improbable Heros. Massachusetts Medicine, July-Aug. 1986, Vol 1, No 4.
Some people do great things for human health just by talking, calculating, and writing.
She & He: Different Brains? Science82, September 1982
Sex differences start in the genes, trigger the hormones, shape the brain, and direct behavior.
Essays About & Interviews with Melvin Konner:
“Of archaeopteryx, the !Kung San, and dendrite spines,” by Philip Zaleski. Harvard Magazine, Sep.-Oct. 1982
Interview about The Tangled Wing: Biological Constraints on the Human Spirit, and a personal view of human nature
“The Shape of the Human Spirit,” by Jan DeBlieu. Emory Magazine, August 1984
Interview/profile about a lifetime commitment to understanding human nature.
“Culla a tre Piazza,” by Claudio Gatti. Europeo, Feb. 3, 1989
Interview/article in the leading Italian magazine Europeo on parent-infant co-sleeping.
“Why Your Kids Act the Way They Do,” by Thomas Rogers. Salon.com, May 31, 2010
Interview about The Evolution of Childhood: Relationships, Emotion, Mind
“Catching Up With Kids,” by Terence Monmaney. Smithsonian Magazine, July-Aug. 2010
Interview about The Evolution of Childhood: Relationships, Emotion, Mind
“The Ascent of Woman: Time to Accept It,” by Barbara McMahon. The Times of London (Times 2), March 30, 2015
Interview about Women After All: Sex, Evolution, and the End of Male Supremacy
“The End of Gender Roles,” by Maura Hohman.” U.S. News & World Report, April 2, 2015
Interview about Women After All: Sex, Evolution, and the End of Male Supremacy