Overview

In this new, revised edition of his landmark book, Montagu compels us to reevaluate the way we think about growth and development, in all its phases, throughout life. Humans are designed to grow and develop their childlike qualities, and not to become the ossified adults prescribed by society. Montagu demonstrates how our culture, schools, and families are in conspiracy against such childlike traits as the need to love, to learn, to wonder, to know, to explore, to think, to experiment, to be imaginative, creative and curious, to sing, dance, or play. He also reveals the many links between physical and mental aging and tells how to prevent psychosclerosis, the hardening of the mind, so that we can die young--as late as possible. The best statement ever written on the most important, neglected theme of human life and evolution. Stephen Jay Gould, Harvard University In this new, revised edition of his landmark book, Montagu compels us to reevaluate the way we think about growth and development, in all its phases, throughout life. Humans are designed to grow and develop their childlike qualities, and not to become the ossified adults prescribed by society. Montagu demonstrates how our culture, schools, and families are in conspiracy against such childlike traits as the need to love, to learn, to wonder, to know, to explore, to think, to experiment, to be imaginative, creative and curious, to sing, dance, or play. He also reveals the many links between physical and mental aging and tells how to prevent psychosclerosis, the hardening of the mind, so that we can die young--as late as possible.

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The best statement ever written on the most important, neglected theme of human life and evolution. -Stephen Jay Gould, Harvard University

One comes away from this splendid work with a feeling of hopefulness and optimism. In a world of rather mundane books about the most sacred of all topics--human life--I find Growing Young that proverbial light in a dark tunnel.' -Dr. Thomas J. Cottle Informative and entertaining -Library Journal Very readable. . . . The author . . . presents a stimulating text on making the grownup years more rewarding. -Publishers Weekly ?Informative and entertaining??Library Journal ?Informative and entertaining?-Library Journal ?Very readable. . . . The author . . . presents a stimulating text on making the grownup years more rewarding.?-Publishers Weekly ?One comes away from this splendid work with a feeling of hopefulness and optimism. In a world of rather mundane books about the most sacred of all topics--human life--I find Growing Young that proverbial light in a dark tunnel.'?-Dr. Thomas J. Cottle The best statement ever written on the most important, neglected theme of human life and evolution. -Stephen Jay Gould, Harvard University

Social anthropologist Montagu's latest work is a celebration of neoteny as the guiding principle of human evolution. Neoteny, a term that Montagu uses interchangeably with paedomorphosis, is the theory that a species can undergo rapid evolutionary change as a result of the retention of fetal or juvenile traits in sexually mature adults. Good old fiat-faced, small-jawed, relatively hairless Homo sapiens looks a lot more like an infant or jufenile chimp than like the chimp's parents. Montagu (in common with Stephen Jay Gould) modifies the definition of neoteny by adding that human adults also look more like their own youthful counterparts - children and adolescents. In contrast, gorillas and chimpanzees tend toward gerontomorphism: as they age, the apes' jaws protrude more, their brow-ridges grow, their teeth get bigger. Montagu cares less about physical traits, however, than about behavior. The retardation of development that neoteny implies underlies the vast plasticity of human development - the years of nurturance, curiosity, exploration, educability. Here lies the clue to the human success story. And, Montagu warns, we are in danger of losing sight of those neotenist traits through rigid school systems and cultural mores that restrict horizons and demand that children grow up quickly. So a good part of the book is social prescription. Montagu preaches a fine idealistic line about the need for schools that would encourage interchange among successive grades in a cooperative, supportive setting. At the other end of the scale, he worries about agism - the rampant prejudices, fears, and myths that lead to discrimination against the elderly. Here, he cites current and good research on brain changes in aging which debunks the idea that you lose all those little gray cells and pass rapidly into senility. What you need is stimulation and exercise of mind to achieve that best that's yet to come. Montagu's points are well taken - if only he didn't make them so often and so breathlessly. If only, too, he didn't devote so much space to the rightness or wrongness of pioneer neoteny thinkers like Louis Bolk. Still, even Montagu's excesses have their proven (and undeniable, charms.?? (Kirkus Reviews)

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ASHLEY MONTAGU is an Anthropologist who has taught at Harvard, Princeton, University of California, and New York University and has written more than fifty books, including: Life Before Birth, Touching, Man's Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race, On Being Human, The Nature of Human Agression, The Natural Superiority of Women, and The Peace of the World.

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