Separation and Its Discontents: Toward an Evolutionary Theory of Anti-Semitism

Kevin MacDonald. Separation and Its Discontents: Toward an Evolutionary Theory of Anti-Semitism. Westport, GT: Praeger, 1998, 336 pages, $65.00.

Reviewed by Malcolm James Ree, Visiting Professor, Center for Leadership Studies, Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, TX.

This is a book for the intellect, not for practical applications. The author is Professor of Psychology at the California State University, Long Beach and this is the second book in a trilogy about Judaism as investigated by evolutionary psychological theory. The first was published by Praeger in 1994 and was entitled A People That Shall Dwell Alone: Judaism as a Group Evolutionary Strategy. Most of us in the pluralistic western world find it odd to think about religion as an evolutionary strategy. Perhaps the issue is that we tend to think of a strategy as being deliberate and always under our voluntary control. The voluntary model of strategy is persistent, but it is neither mandatory nor necessarily complete. Right now, you probably have a nonvoluntary evolutionary strategy at work. It might be in genes for specific proteins that extend or shorten your life, or it may be a habit or set of habits that influence your ability to produce and nurture offspring or the offsprings of your offsprings. In this nonvoluntary model, the genetic component of diabetes has evolutionary impact, as does your habit of avoiding or engaging in risky behavior. Once past the limited voluntary notion of strategy, Separation and Its Discontents can be understood as an investigation into the causes of anti-Semitism and responses to anti-Semitism.

MacDonald approaches the evolutionary explanation from the standpoint of social identity theory. Tajfel and Turner developed social identity theory about 25 years ago based on three principal axioms: (a) people are automatically assigned to groups, (b) we identify with our ingroup and recognize the other's...