In anthropological thermodynamics, David Friend Aberle (1918-2004) was a Canadian anthropologist noted for his 1987 lecture “What Kind of Science is Anthropology?”, in which he suggests that anthropology needs to discard the Newtonian reversible model and instead to use thermodynamic irreversible models; or specifically to “catch up with the new views of entropy, information, and evolution”. [1] Aberle notes, in his opinion, that Americans anthropologist Richard Adams (1975, 78) and writer Jeremy Campbell (1982) have made efforts in this area in “bringing us up to date”. [2]
Aberle was one of the reviewers of Daniel Brooks and Edward Wiley’s 1986 book Evolution as Entropy. [3]
Education
In 1968, Aberle was a professor of anthropology, at the University of British Columbia, and by 1987 he was a professor emeritus of anthropology and sociology.
References
1. (a) Aberle, David. F. (1987). “Distinguished Lecture: What Kind of Science is Anthropology?” (abstract) American Anthropologist, Vol. 89, No. 3, pgs: 551-66. Sept.
(b) “Review: What Kind of Science is Anthropology?” – PublicAnthropology.org.
(c) Bailey, Kenneth D. (1990). Social Entropy Theory (pg. 72). New York: State University of New York Press.
2. (a) Adams, Richard N. (1975). Energy and Structure: a Theory of Social Power. Austin: University of Texas Press.
(b) Adams, Richard N. (1988). The Eighth Day: Social Evolution as the Self-organization of Energy. University of Texas Press.
(c) Campbell, Jeremy. (1982). Grammatical Man - Information, Entropy, Language, and Life. New York: Simon and Schuster.
3. Brooks, Daniel R. and Wiley E.O. (1988). Evolution and Entropy (2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
External links
● Thomas Merton’s Correspondence with: Aberle, David Friend, 1918-2004 – Merton.org.
External links
● David Aberle – Wikipedia.
● Aberle, David – WorldCat Identities.
