11 - Ethnicity and the sociobiology debate

Summary

In convening the conference at which the original version of this paper was presented, John Rex mandated intellectual combat, and I was happy to comply. He wrote me: ‘What I want to do on this occasion is to have a real confrontation between theoretical positions. I would therefore like you if possible to speak about your move towards sociobiology in the light of the criticisms which that move has encountered from your colleagues’ (Rex, 1983b).

Let me, therefore, indulge in an analysis of fourteen recent reviews of The Ethnic Phenomenon (van den Berghe, 1981), a reasonable sample of the range of both ideological and theoretical criticisms levelled at my approach. The sample is biased in the direction of intellectual competence and honesty as it includes several distinguished contributors to the field of ethnic relations. So, I have no complaints. I knew my book was touching on practically every raw nerve in the social sciences, since I had the audacity not only to espouse the label of sociobiology but also to apply it to the most burning ideological issues of our times: race, ethnicity and, in another book, sex (van den Berghe, 1979).

I face two formidable barriers in communicating with most of my social science colleagues. The first is ideological and, therefore, impervious to rationality, but none the less fascinating to analyse.