Chris Knight (born 1942) is a British anthropologist.

Life

Professional

Following an MPhil in Russian Literature from the

University of Sussex , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

in 1975, Knight gained his PhD in 1987 at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

for a thesis on

Claude Lévi-Strauss Claude Lévi-Strauss (, ; 28 November 1908 – 30 October 2009) was a French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theories of structuralism and structural anthropology. He held the chair of Social Anthro ...

's four-volume ''

Mythologiques ''Mythologiques'' is a four-volume work of cultural anthropology by Claude Lévi-Strauss. Originally written in French, the works were translated into English by John and Doreen Weightman. The four volumes of ''Mythologiques'' are: # ''The Raw a ...

''. He became a lecturer in anthropology at the

University of East London , mottoeng = Knowledge and the fulfilment of vows , established = 1898 – West Ham Technical Institute1952 – West Ham College of Technology1970 – North East London Polytechnic1989 – Polytechnic of East London ...

in 1989 and a professor at the same institution in 2000.Richard Rogers and Paul Lewis
"Professor suspended over claims he incited G20 violence"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 27 March 2009 A founding member of the "Radical Anthropology Group" (RAG), Knight is currently a senior research fellow in the Department of Anthropology,

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

. Since graduating from the University of Sussex in 1966, Knight has been exploring the idea that language and symbolic culture emerged in the human species through a process of

Darwinian evolution Darwinism is a theory of biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that ...

culminating at a certain point in revolutionary change. Becoming human was, from this perspective, a classic instance of a dialectical process, i.e. one in which quantitative change culminates eventually in a qualitative leap. In pursuing this line of thought, Knight takes inspiration not only from modern Darwinian theorists such as

Eörs Szathmáry Eörs Szathmáry (born 1959) is a Hungarian theoretical evolutionary biologist at the now-defunct Collegium Budapest Institute for Advanced Study and at the Department of Plant Taxonomy and Ecology of Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. He i ...

and

John Maynard Smith John Maynard Smith (6 January 1920 – 19 April 2004) was a British theoretical and mathematical evolutionary biologist and geneticist. Originally an aeronautical engineer during the Second World War, he took a second degree in genetics und ...

but also from

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

and

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' origins of language, since when he has become a prominent figure in debates on the origins of human symbolic culture and especially the

origin of language The origin of language (spoken and signed, as well as language-related technological systems such as writing), its relationship with human evolution, and its consequences have been subjects of study for centuries. Scholars wishing to study th ...

. In recognition of his contribution to

evolutionary linguistics Evolutionary linguistics or Darwinian linguistics is a sociobiological approach to the study of language. Evolutionary linguists consider linguistics as a subfield of sociobiology and evolutionary psychology. The approach is also closely linked ...

, Knight was awarded the Evolutionary Linguistics Association's Lifetime Achievement Award at an event held in Vienna in April 2014.

Selected works

''Blood Relations: Menstruation and the Origins of Culture''

Published in 1991, Knight's first full-length book, ''Blood Relations: Menstruation and the origins of culture'' was favourably reviewed in ''

The Times Higher Educational Supplement ''Times Higher Education'' (''THE''), formerly ''The Times Higher Education Supplement'' (''The Thes''), is a British magazine reporting specifically on news and issues related to higher education. Ownership TPG Capital acquired TSL Education ...

'', ''

The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication i ...

'' and ''

The London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of ...

''; it also received publicity through an interview on the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

''Science Now'' programme, a debate with Dr.

Henrietta Moore Dame Henrietta Louise Moore, (born 18 May 1957) is a British social anthropologist. She is the director of the Institute for Global Prosperity at University College, London (UCL), part of the Bartlett, UCL's Faculty of the Built Environment. ...

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

Woman’s Hour ''Woman's Hour'' is a radio magazine programme broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC Light Programme, BBC Radio 2, and later BBC Radio 4. It has been on the air since 1946. History Created by Norman Collins and originally presented by A ...

'', a front-page news report in ''The Independent on Sunday'' and ''Daily Telegraph'' and coverage in many other periodicals. ''

The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute The ''Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute'' (JRAI) is the principal journal of the oldest anthropological organization in the world, the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. Articles, at the forefront of the dis ...

'' described ''Blood Relations'' as ‘a very readable, witty, lively treasure-trove of anthropological wisdom and insight.’ In April 1998, the ''

Independent on Sunday ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' featured a two-page article on Knight's work by science correspondent

Marek Kohn Marek Kohn is a British science writer on evolution, biology and society. Early life and education Kohn holds an undergraduate degree in neurobiology from the University of Sussex, a PhD from the University of Brighton and has held fellowship ...

, who described Knight's approach to the origins of language as ‘drawing together some of the most dynamic lines of argument in current British evolutionary thought’. In 1997, the feminist journalist and historian

Barbara Ehrenreich Barbara Ehrenreich (, ; ; August 26, 1941 – September 1, 2022) was an American author and political activist. During the 1980s and early 1990s, she was a prominent figure in the Democratic Socialists of America. She was a widely read and awar ...

did much to explain and utilize Knight's ideas in her book, ''Blood Rites: The origins and history of the passions of war.'' Among major poets,

Ted Hughes Edward James "Ted" Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest wri ...

and

Peter Redgrove Peter William Redgrove (2 January 1932 – 16 June 2003) was a British poet, who also wrote prose, novels and plays with his second wife Penelope Shuttle. Life and career Redgrove was born in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. He was educated at Tau ...

favourably cite Knight's insights concerning menstrual synchrony and its place in world mythology and folklore. The sculptor

Anish Kapoor Sir Anish Mikhail Kapoor (born 12 March 1954) is a British-Indian sculptor specializing in installation art and conceptual art. Born in Mumbai, Kapoor attended the elite all-boys Indian boarding school The Doon School, before moving to the UK ...

draws inspiration from Knight's work, describing how his appreciation of the colour red – in, for example, Kapoor's celebrated sculpture
Blood Relations
–'' owes much to Knight's 'wonderful theory' that the world's first art was produced when women began decorating themselves with red ochre cosmetics. Another prominent figure inspired by Knight's book is the Chilean revolutionary activist and artist Cecilia Vicuña. Having studied Knight's work over many years, she associates the blood-red woolen quipus or 'Red Threads' central to much of her recent work with the string figures and images of menstruating goddesses in Aboriginal Australian rock-art as described and interpreted by Knight in his book. Although Knight's theory of human cultural and symbolic origins remains controversial, in the years since ''Blood Relations'' was published it has become central to an increasing body of archaeological research and debate on how symbolic culture first emerged during the evolution of our species.

''Decoding Chomsky: Science and Revolutionary Politics''

Knight's more recent book, ''Decoding Chomsky'' is a sustained critique of

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...

's approach to science and its relationship to politics. Its publication in October 2016 sparked instant public controversy. A reviewer for the US ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' hailed it as perhaps 'the most in-depth meditation on "the Chomsky problem" ever published', recommending it as 'a compelling read'. In Britain, ''The New Scientist'' described Knight's controversial account as 'trenchant and compelling.' Chomsky responded dismissively to Knight's book in both ''The New York Times'' and ''The London Review of Books.''

Other books

* (ed. with R. Dunbar and C. Power
''The Evolution of Culture''.
Edinburgh:

Edinburgh University Press Edinburgh University Press is a scholarly publisher of academic books and journals, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. History Edinburgh University Press was founded in the 1940s and became a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Edinburgh ...

, 1999. . * (ed. with J. R. Hurford and M. Studdert-Kennedy
''Approaches to the Evolution of Language: Social and cognitive bases''.
Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

, 1998. * (ed. with M. Studdert-Kennedy and J. R. Hurford
''The Evolutionary Emergence of Language''.
Cambridge:

, 2000. . * (ed. with R. Botha
''The Prehistory of Language''.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. . * (ed. with R. Botha
''The Cradle of Language''.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. * (ed. with D. Dor and J. Lewis
''The Social Origins of Language.''
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.

Activism

Initially a supporter of the

Militant The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Latin " ...

tendency in the Labour Party, Chris Knight was later a founder editor of the journal ''

Labour Briefing ''Labour Briefing'' is a monthly political magazine produced by members of the British Labour Party. History and profile The magazine began in 1980 as ''London Labour Briefing''. The founders were the members of the Chartist Minority Tendency, ...

''David Cohen
"Meet Mister Mayhem"
''Evening Standard'' ( ThisIsLondon.com website), 25 March 2009 (he remains on the board) and has a long record of political activism. Although sometimes described as an anarchist,Knight, C. and C. Power 2012
Arrest for Attempted Street Theatre.
''Anthropology Today'', Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 24–26. Knight defines himself intellectually as working within the tradition of

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

. During the 1984-1985 miners' strike, Knight was involved in setting up a group called ''Pit Dragon'' with the aim of bringing together writers and artists in support of the miners. Roland Muldoon of the CAST theatre company played a significant role in the organization's success, as did the children's writer Michael Rosen. According to the ''New Musical Express,'' writing at the time: Pit Dragon'' has managed to harness the talents of every worthwhile artist on the seamier side of the London cabaret circuit and the potential to develop into the most dynamic political/cultural organization since Rock Against Racism.' In February 1985, the group planned an unusual way of turning a mass picket into a lively cultural occasion. Knight had the idea of inviting fire-eaters, tightrope walkers, poets, comedians, jugglers and musicians to meet at the gates of Neasden Power Station in Brent, North London. The police were warned in advance, the artists staged their performances on the picket line and not one truck even attempted to get through. The picket was counted a success when the power station was shut down for the entire day. Reminiscent of the carnivalesque atmosphere outside the Neasden Power Station was the mass picket held in Liverpool to celebrate the first anniversary of the Liverpool dockers' strike and lock-out which had begun late in 1995. Linking up with activists in the anti-car movement Reclaim the Streets, Knight used his position in the London Support Group to introduce the dockers to these 'Kill the Car' environmentalists.http://www.chrisknight.co.uk/reclaim-the-streets_liverpool-dockers/ Realizing they had much in common, the two culturally different groups spent the summer of 1996 working on an ambitious plan. On September 28, a 10,000 strong celebratory cultural event and street party was held on the quayside, followed at break of dawn next morning by a mass picket and symbolic roof-top occupation of what the dockers termed 'the rat house' – the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company headquarters and nearby gantries. For twelve months, Britain's mainstream media outlets had effectively ignored the long-running dispute. But the dockers' alliance with musicians and environmentalists now drew global attention to their cause, giving them new courage and inspiring them to continue their strike into its second year. The dispute now gathered momentum in such a way that by late January 1997, trade unionists in over a hundred ports and cities across the world had linked up with environmentalists and others in making the action global. In the end, the dockers' picket line proved to be not only global in reach but a record-breaker in lasting for more than two years. Since the early decades of the twentieth century, industrial militancy by dockers had been uniquely internationalist for reasons intrinsic to their particular trade. Once a tanker has been forced by pickets to unload elsewhere, other ports get drawn into the dispute. And so it was that in the months building up to the 'Battle of Seattle', the slogan invented for their own reasons by Liverpool's militant dockers – 'Another World Is Possible' – began hitting the headlines across the world Among the roots of the 'Battle of Seattle' which broke out in November 1999 were the cultural events sponsored by Knight and his Reclaim the Streets friends in Liverpool on the opposite side of the world. Seattle had been the port where, two years earlier, an alliance between dockers, musicians, environmentalists and others had combined forces in support of an internationalist cause. 'Save the Whales' and 'Save the Turtles' activists had long been working alongside 'Save Our Jobs' trade unionists. These developments in Seattle ensured that when the World Trade Organization decided to hold its 1999 Convention in the city, activists across the area were primed for unusually creative and imaginative resistance to the WTO's globalization project. Seattle and its surroundings had by this stage become effectively a powder keg. During the build-up to the 2009

G-20 Summit The following list of G20 summits summarizes all G20 conferences held at various different levels: summits of heads of state or heads of government, ministerial-level meetings, Engagement Group meetings and others. Summits of state leaders ...

in London, Knight was involved in a street theatre group known as The Government of the Dead. Statements he made at this time in an interview for the London ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

''Melanie Newman
"UEL suspends 'Mr Mayhem' and cancels alternative G20"
''Times Higher Education'', 2 April 2009 (and the '' PM'' programme) led the Corporate Management Team at the University of East London to charge him with 'advocating violence' and 'bringing the university into disrepute'. He was suspended and, despite a petition signed by over 700 academics and others, 'summarily dismissed' on 22 July 2009. On 28 April 2011, Knight 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 Duke of York is a title of nobility in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of English (later British) monarchs. The equivalent title in the Scottish peerage was D ...

(Prince Andrew) in Central London the following day, to coincide with the

wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton The wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton took place on Friday, 29 April 2011 at Westminster Abbey in London, England. The groom was second in the line of succession to the British throne. The couple had been in a relationship since ...

. All three were later released without charge. On 30 November 2011, Knight was one of 21 '

Occupy London Occupy London was a political movement in London, England, and part of the international Occupy movement. While some media described it as an "anti-capitalist" movement, in the statement written and endorsed by consensus by the Occupy assembly i ...

' activists arrested and later charged with public order offences for occupying the

Haymarket Haymarket may refer to: Places Australia * Haymarket, New South Wales, area of Sydney, Australia Germany * Heumarkt (KVB), transport interchange in Cologne on the site of the Heumarkt (literally: hay market) Russia * Sennaya Square (''Hay Squ ...

(Central London) offices of the mining company

Xstrata Xstrata plc was an Anglo-Swiss multinational mining company headquartered in Zug, Switzerland and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It was a major producer of coal (and the world's largest exporter of thermal coal), copper, ...

in a protest against the company's diversion of the McArthur River in the Northern Territory of Australia, violating sites held sacred by the Yanyuwa, Mara, Garrawa and Gurdanji Traditional Owners of the region. On 8 August 2012, following a hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court, Knight and his co-defendants were all found not guilty. In 2017, Knight supported

Ken Livingstone Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born 17 June 1945) is an English politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of London from the creation of the office i ...

in a controversy over allegedly anti-Semitic remarks made by the former London Mayor in 2016.

Family Background

Knight was born in 1942 in

Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...

, Suffolk, where his mother Nora Dalton (born 1922, daughter of Philip Dalton and Nora Hennessy) had been serving in the Land Army. His father, Denis Knight, was born in 1921 in Volos, Greece, where Denis' own father, W. L. C. Knight, served as Consul General in Salonika. From 1 September 1941 to 10 January 1947, Denis served in the 44th Royal Tank Regiment as a tank co-driver. He stayed with the same crew in C Squadron throughout, first joining them in Egypt and Palestine in 1942. His first frontline action was in July 1943 as part of Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, with especially heavy fighting south of Catania at Primasole Bridge. He continued to be in the thick of it in late 1943 as the Eighth Army pressed up from the heel of Italy along the Adriatic coast. In early 1944 the 44th RTR returned to the UK to prepare for the invasion of Normandy, landing on Gold Beach on D-Day +2. Once again they were in the heart of the action around Caen and Falaise, then through northern France and into Holland where they were a vital part of Operation Market Garden, protecting the land corridor to Arnhem. Their final campaign was the invasion of Germany itself, crossing the Rhine at Xanten on 24 March 1945 - the first British tanks to do so. They continued to face stiff opposition from diehard Nazi troops as they took Bremen, and then on to Hamburg, when hostilities ceased on 5 May 1945. Denis and his tank crew were fortunate to survive - many of their comrades did not. In later life, Denis achieved recognition as a significant war-poet, while in 1986 he published an edited collection of essays by William Cobbett.Cobbett in Ireland: A Warning to England obbett's writings edited by Denis Knight Nora and Denis remained together for life and had five children (Christopher, Kevin, Elizabeth, Peter and Simon) and six grandchildren. Chris went on to have three children and eight grandchildren.

References

External links

* * (Science and Revolution)
The Laughing Professor
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knight, Chris 1942 births Living people Alumni of the University of Sussex Academics of the University of East London Alumni of the University of London British anthropologists British communists British Marxists British non-fiction writers Human evolution theorists Militant tendency supporters British male writers People associated with The Institute for Cultural Research Male non-fiction writers