Biodemography and Social Biology

Last updated

History

Biodemography and Social Biology was first established in 1916 as Eugenical News. It was published under that title until 1953. It was renamed Eugenics Quarterly in 1954, when it was launched by the American Eugenics Society as a scholarly journal focused on eugenics and related subjects. [3] It was renamed Social Biology in 1969, as a result of the term "eugenics" falling out of fashion. [4] It was renamed again to its current title in 2008 [5] and continues to publish as an independent journal after the disbandment of the Society for Biodemography and Social Biology in 2019. [6]

Notable studies

[ according to whom? ]

Past editors

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eugenics</span> Effort to improve purported human genetic quality

Eugenics is a set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have altered various human gene frequencies by inhibiting the fertility of people and groups purported to be inferior or promoting that of those purported to be superior. Since the early 2020s, the term has seen a revival in bioethical discussions on the usage of new technologies such as CRISPR and genetic screening, with ongoing debate around whether these technologies should be considered eugenics or not.

<i>Annals of Human Genetics</i> Academic journal

The Annals of Human Genetics is a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering human genetics. It was established in 1925 by Karl Pearson as the Annals of Eugenics, with as subtitle, Darwin's epigram "I have no Faith in anything short of actual measurement and the rule of three". The journal obtained its current name in 1954 to reflect changing perceptions on eugenics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madison Grant</span> American eugenicist, conservationist, and author (1865–1937)

Madison Grant was an American lawyer, zoologist, anthropologist, and writer known for his work as a conservationist, eugenicist, and advocate of scientific racism. Grant is less noted for his far-reaching achievements in conservation than for his pseudoscientific advocacy of Nordicism, a form of racism which views the "Nordic race" as superior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Popenoe</span>

Paul Bowman Popenoe was an American marriage counselor, eugenicist and agricultural explorer. He was an influential advocate of the compulsory sterilization of mentally ill people and people with mental disabilities, and the father of marriage counseling in the United States.

The American Eugenics Society (AES) was a pro-eugenics organization dedicated to "furthering the discussion, advancement, and dissemination of knowledge about biological and sociocultural forces which affect the structure and composition of human populations". It endorsed the study and practice of Eugenics in the United States. Its original name as the American Eugenics Society lasted from 1922 to 1973, but the group changed their name after open use of the term "eugenics" became disfavored; it was known as the Society for the Study of Social Biology from 1973-2008, and the Society for Biodemography and Social Biology from 2008–2019. The Society was disbanded in 2019.

The Adelphi Genetics Forum is a non-profit learned society based in the United Kingdom. Its aims are "to promote the public understanding of human heredity and to facilitate informed debate about the ethical issues raised by advances in reproductive technology."

<i>Mankind Quarterly</i> Pseudo-scientific White Supremacist journal

Mankind Quarterly is a journal that has been described as a "cornerstone of the scientific racism establishment", a "white supremacist journal", and "a pseudo-scholarly outlet for promoting racial inequality". It covers physical and cultural anthropology, including human evolution, intelligence, ethnography, linguistics, mythology, archaeology, and biology. It is published by the Ulster Institute for Social Research, which was presided over by Richard Lynn until his death in 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human Betterment Foundation</span>

The Human Betterment Foundation (HBF) was an American eugenics organization established in Pasadena, California in 1928 by E.S. Gosney and Rufus B. von KleinSmid, President of the University of Southern California, with the aim "to foster and aid constructive and educational forces for the protection and betterment of the human family in body, mind, character, and citizenship". It primarily served to compile and distribute information about compulsory sterilization legislation in the United States, for the purposes of eugenics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Pearson (anthropologist)</span> British anthropologist and far-right activist (born 1927)

Roger Pearson is a British anthropologist, eugenicist, white supremacist, political organiser for the extreme right, and publisher of political and academic journals.

Major General Frederick Henry Osborn CBE was an American philanthropist, military leader, and eugenicist. He was a founder of several organizations and played a central part in reorienting eugenics in away from overt racism in the years leading up to World War II. The American Philosophical Society considers him to have been "the respectable face of eugenic research in the post-war period." Osborn was the nephew of the paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn.

Hiram Bentley Glass was an American geneticist and noted columnist.

Biodemography is a multidisciplinary approach, integrating biological knowledge with demographic research on human longevity and survival. Biodemographic studies are important for understanding the driving forces of the current longevity revolution, forecasting the future of human longevity, and identification of new strategies for further increase in healthy and productive life span.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georges Vacher de Lapouge</span> French anthropologist

Count Georges Vacher de Lapouge was a French anthropologist and a theoretician of eugenics and scientific racism. He is known as the founder of anthroposociology, the anthropological and sociological study of race as a means of establishing the superiority of certain peoples.

Eileen M. Crimmins is the AARP Chair in Gerontology at the USC Davis School of Gerontology of the University of Southern California. Her work focuses on the connections between socioeconomic factors and life expectancy and other health outcomes.

<i>The Journals of Gerontology</i> Academic journal

The Journals of Gerontology are the first scientific journals on aging published in the United States. The publication is separated into four separate peer-reviewed scientific journals, each with its own editor, and published in two series. The Journal of Gerontology: Biological Sciences and the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences are housed within The Journals of Gerontology, Series A; the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences are housed within The Journals of Gerontology, Series B. The journals are published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.

The relationship between fertility and intelligence has been investigated in many demographic studies. There is evidence that, on a population level, measures of intelligence such as educational attainment and literacy are negatively correlated with fertility rate in some contexts. However, genetic studies have shown no evidence for dysgenic effects in human populations. Theories about dysgenic and eugenic effects in human populations have historically been associated with scientific racism.

Eugenics, the set of beliefs and practices which aims at improving the genetic quality of the human population, played a significant role in the history and culture of the United States from the late 19th century into the mid-20th century. The cause became increasingly promoted by intellectuals of the Progressive Era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerhard Meisenberg</span> German biochemist

Gerhard Meisenberg is a German biochemist. As of 2018, he was a professor of physiology and biochemistry at Ross University School of Medicine in Dominica. He is a director, with Richard Lynn, of the Pioneer Fund, which has been described as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. He was, until 2018 or 2019, the editor-in-chief of Mankind Quarterly, which is commonly described as a white supremacist journal and purveyor of scientific racism.

Aurelio José Figueredo is an American evolutionary psychologist. He is a professor of psychology, Family Studies and Human Development at the University of Arizona, where he is also the director of the Ethology and Evolutionary Psychology Laboratory. He is also a member of the interdisciplinary Center for Insect Science at the University of Arizona. His major areas of research interest are the evolutionary psychology and behavioral development of life history strategy, cognition, sex, and violence in human and nonhuman animals, and the quantitative ethology and social development of insects, birds, and primates. He is known for his research on personality, such as a 1997 study in which he and James E. King developed the Chimpanzee Personality Questionnaire to measure the Big Five personality traits in chimpanzees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eugenic feminism</span> Areas of the womens suffrage movement which overlapped with eugenics

Eugenic feminism was a current of the women's suffrage movement which overlapped with [[eugenics]]. Originally coined by the Lebanese-British physician and vocal eugenicist Caleb Saleeby, the term has since been applied to summarize views held by prominent feminists of Great Britain and the United States. Some early suffragettes in Canada, especially a group known as The Famous Five, also pushed for various eugenic policies.

References

  1. "Biodemography and Social Biology Aims & Scope".
  2. "Journals Ranked by Impact: Demography". 2019 Journal Citation Reports. Web of Science (Science ed.). Clarivate Analytics. 2020.
  3. Gur-Arie, Rachel (2014-11-22). "American Eugenics Society (1926-1972)". The Embryo Project Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2020-05-25.
  4. Missouri, MU Libraries, University of (2011-03-07). "Eugenical News". library.missouri.edu. Retrieved 2018-02-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. Bashford, Alison; Levine, Philippa (2010-09-24). The Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 542. ISBN   9780195373141.
  6. Matsuura, H. (2023-04-16). "Overcoming the history of Eugenics in demography call for contributions from historians, ethicists, and human rights scholars". Biodemography and Social Biology. 68 (1): 1–2. doi:10.1080/19485565.2023.2203570. ISSN   1948-5573. PMID   37062056. S2CID   258171239.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Osborne, Richard H.; Osborne, Barbara T. (1999). "The history of the journal social biology: 1954 (Vol. 1) through 1999 (Vol. 46)". Biodemography and Social Biology. 46 (3–4): 164–178. doi:10.1080/19485565.1999.9988996.
  8. "editorial board: biodemography and social biology, 2008". Biodemography and Social Biology. 54 (1). March 2008. doi:10.1080/19485565.2008.9989127. S2CID   218602220.
  9. "editorial board: biodemography and social biology, 2013". Biodemography and Social Biology. 59 (2). 3 July 2013. doi:10.1080/19485565.2013.843382. S2CID   218604190.