Chris Knight (anthropologist)

Chris Knight at the 2009 G20 protests in London

Chris Knight (born 1942) is a British anthropologist and political activist.

Following an MPhil in Russian Literature from the University of Sussex in 1977,^[1] he gained his PhD in 1987 at the University of London for a thesis on Claude Lévi-Strauss's four-volume Mythologiques. He became a lecturer in anthropology at the University of East London in 1989 and a professor at the same institution in 2000.^[2] Knight is a founding member of the Radical Anthropology Group (RAG).^[3]

Knight is best known for his theory that human language, religion and culture emerged in the human species not simply by gradual Darwinian evolution but in a process culminating in revolutionary social change. In this, he claims to be following in the footsteps of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, who in their later years were fascinated by what was then the new science of anthropology.^[4] Knight published his first book, Blood Relations: Menstruation and the origins of culture in 1991.^[5] Since then, he has been a major figure in debates on the origins of human symbolic culture and especially the origin of language.

Initially a supporter of the Militant tendency, Chris Knight was later a founder editor of the journal Labour Left Briefing^[6] (he remains on the board^[7]) and has a long record of political activism. Although a Marxist,^[8] he is often mistakenly described by the press as an anarchist. During the build-up to the 2009 G-20 Summit in London, he was involved in a street theatre group known as The Government of the Dead.^[9] Statements he made at this time in an interview^[6] for the London Evening Standard^[5] (and the PM programme^[10]) led the Corporate Management Team at the University of East London to charge him with 'gross professional misconduct', 'insubordination' and 'bringing the university into disrepute'. He was suspended on 26 March 2009^[2] and, despite a petition signed by 600 academics and others, was 'summarily dismissed' on 22 July 2009. He is now a visiting lecturer and Professor of Anthropology at the University of Comenius, Bratislava, Slovakia.^{[citation needed]}

On 28 April 2011, he was one of three people arrested "on suspicion of conspiracy to cause public nuisance and breach of the peace". The three were planning a mock execution of The Duke of York in central London on the following day, to coincide with the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.^[11][12][13]

Selected writings

• In Defence of Activism
• Decoding Chomsky
• Marxism and Science
• Solidarity and Sex
• Sex and the human revolution
• Knight, C., C. Power and I. Watts, 1995. The human symbolic revolution: A Darwinian account. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 5 (1): 75-114.
• Knight, C. 2008. Early Human Kinship was Matrilineal. In N. J. Allen, H. Callan, R. Dunbar and W. James (eds), Early Human Kinship. London: Royal Anthropological Institute, pp. 61–82.
• Knight, C. 2010. The origins of symbolic culture. In Ulrich J. Frey, Charlotte Störmer and Kai P. Willführ (eds) 2010. Homo Novus – A Human Without Illusions. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, pp. 193–211.

Books

• Botha, R. and C. Knight (eds), 2009. The Prehistory of Language. (Oxford: Oxford University Press.) ISBN 9780199545872.
• Botha, R. and C. Knight (eds), 2009. The Cradle of Language. (Oxford: Oxford University Press.) ISBN 9780199545858
• Knight, C., 1991. Blood Relations: Menstruation and the origins of culture. (London & New Haven: Yale University Press), ISBN 0300049110.
• Knight, C., R. Dunbar and C. Power (eds), 1999. The Evolution of Culture (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press), ISBN 0748610766.
• Knight, C., M. Studdert-Kennedy and J. R. Hurford (eds), 2000. The Evolutionary Emergence of Language (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), ISBN 0521781574.

See also

• 2009 G-20 London summit protests: Alternative London Summit

References

1. ^ Robin Dunbar, Chris Knight and Camilla Power (eds), The Evolution of Culture: an Interdisciplinary View (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999), p. viii
2. ^ ^{a b} Richard Rogers and Paul Lewis, "Professor suspended over claims he incited G20 violence" The Guardian, 27 March 2009
3. ^ A Brief History of RAG. Retrieved 30 April 2011
4. ^ Frederick Engels, 1884. The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State
5. ^ ^{a b} Melanie Newman, "UEL suspends 'Mr Mayhem' and cancels alternative G20", Times Higher Education, 2 April 2009
6. ^ ^{a b} David Cohen, "Meet Mister Mayhem", Evening Standard (thisislondon website), 25 March 2009
7. ^ "About Labour Briefing" Retrieved 30 April 2011 (Labour Briefing is the present title)
8. ^ Interview for Ready Steady Book, 2 March 2006 Retrieved 30 April 2011
9. ^ The Government of the Dead website Retrieved 30 April 2011
10. ^ Fiona Hamilton, "Anarchist professor Chris Knight suspended after G20 'threat'", The Times, 26 March 2009
11. ^ David Batty, "Royal wedding protest: three anti-capitalist activists arrested" The Guardian, 28 April 2011. Retrieved 29 April 2011
12. ^ Zombie Wedding invitation Retrieved 29 April 2011
13. ^ Robert Booth, Sandra Laville and Shiv Malik, "Royal wedding: police criticised for pre-emptive strikes against protesters" The Guardian, 29 April 2011. Retrieved 30 April 2011

External links

• Chris Knight - Professor of Anthropology Personal Web Site
• G-20 Meltdown website
• Alternative London Summit
• Responses to 'Blood Relations: Menstruation and the origins of culture'
• Radical Anthropology Group
• The Government of the Dead web page.
• Government of the Dead video
• UEL Rising East academic essay exploring ideas behind Chris Knight's carnivalesque organisation of G20 protest.
• Ian Tomlinson Memorial March
• G20 protests: The Laughing Professor
• Government of the Dead - Mardi Gras

Persondata
Name	Knight, Chris
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1942
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death