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The Riddle of Intelligence: It’s Not What You Think

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Volume 2

Explanations in the Social Sciences

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The Riddle of Intelligence

It’s Not What You Think

John Terrell, Eugene Anderson, Foreman Bandama, Abhik Ghosh, and Marcia Leenen-Young

150 pages, 23 ills., bibliog., index

ISBN  978-1-80539-994-0 $120.00/£92.00 / Hb / Published (June 2025)

ISBN  978-1-83695-470-5 $24.95/£19.95 / Pb / Not Yet Published (April 2026)

eISBN 978-1-80539-996-4 eBook

https://doi.org/10.3167/9781805399940


View CartYour country: - edit Request a Review or Examination Copy (in Digital Format)Recommend to your LibraryAvailable in GOBI®

Reviews

“I think this is a successful initial broadside against a target that has been quite vexing in science for over a century – what we call intelligence, and what psychologists claim to be able to study rigorously.” • Jonathan Marks, UNC Charlotte

“[The authors] brought a necessary interdisciplinary work that scrutinizes the general assumptions of the word intelligence.” • Tory Schendel-Vyvoda

Description

There is little agreement today on what it takes to be intelligent. Yet this word is widely believed to be about something real, mostly biological, and important. From this popular perspective, intelligence is also something you can have a lot of, and luckily find yourself being labeled as a genius. Or sadly, something you do not have nearly enough of, and so find yourself being seen by others, at least behind your back, as silly, stupid, or plainly idiotic. Looked at closely, however, it turns out this word belongs more in the realm of traditional folklore than modern science.

John Edward Terrell is Regenstein Curator of Pacific Anthropology Emeritus at Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.

Eugene Anderson is Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus, at the University of California, Riverside. He studies cultural ecology and medical anthropology.

Foreman Bandama is the Assistant Curator of African Anthropology at the Field Museum of Natural History, and Lecturer at the University of Illinois, Chicago.

Abhik Ghosh is Professor of Social Anthropology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, where he has been Chairperson of the Department of Anthropology and the Coordinator of the CAS-II Program at the University of Delhi.

Marcia Leenen-Young is a senior lecturer in Pacific in Pacific Studies in Te Wānanga o Waipapa at Waipapa Taumata Rau, the University of Auckland.

Subject: SociologyAnthropology (General)


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