Irven DeVore
started out as the son of a small-town Texas preacher. By age 17, DeVore was
ministering the gospel at the head of the church. He enrolled at the
University of Texas to study theology and
philosophy but later switched to anthropology. After completing graduate
studies at the University of Chicago,
DeVore went to East Africa to observe apes in 1959, the same year
Jane Goodall began her famous field
studies on chimpanzees. Increasingly, he says, he became fascinated by human
nature and what makes people male or female.
DeVore is currently Curator of Primatology at Harvard's
Peabody Museum of Archeology and
Ethnology. He also teaches at Harvard
University, most notably, he teaches Science B-29, in which he is known for
exceptionally lively and sometimes raunchy lectures. For instance, he discusses
the mating habits of elephant seals, orangutans, hangflies, ostriches, lions,
and chimps to name a few. "I teach by humor and shock," acknowledges DeVore,
whose course uses evolutionary theory, social behavior, language acquisition
and brain anatomy as context for examining human behavior. "There is no excuse
for boring students when you're talking about human nature. It's too
interesting." DeVore uses the unique approach of blending biology and social
anthropology and somehow manages to interweave Charles Darwin's writings on
natural selection with Dave Barry's observations on modern male courtship
behavior.
DeVore hasn’t spent his entire career in the classroom. He has 20
years of field experience studying human hunters and gatherers. He has lived
among baboons in Kenya, Bushmen in Botswana's Kalahari Desert, and the Efe
Pygmies of Zaire. I'm sure he'll freely admit that fieldwork has its risks.
DeVore has been struck by lightning in Botswana, stung by giant jellyfish in
New Guinea and infected by parasites in Zaire. A female orangutan once mistook
DeVore for a sperm donor but, fortunately (for him), not for very long and in
Wyoming he was nearly gnawed to death by a wild stallion.
References:
Joseph P.Kahn, "The Professor of Carnal Knowledge" Boston Globe
Wednesday, March 26, 1997.
Harvard University – African Studies Department – Faculty Web
Page
Irven DeVore
started out as the son of a small-town Texas preacher. By age 17, DeVore was
ministering the gospel at the head of the church. He enrolled at the
University of Texas to study theology and
philosophy but later switched to anthropology. After completing graduate
studies at the University of Chicago,
DeVore went to East Africa to observe apes in 1959, the same year
Jane Goodall began her famous field
studies on chimpanzees. Increasingly, he says, he became fascinated by human
nature and what makes people male or female.