Irven DeVore is an anthropologist

Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...

 and evolutionary biologist, and Curator of Primatology

Primatology

Primatology is the scientific study of primates. It is a diverse discipline and researchers can be found in academic departments of anatomy, anthropology, biology, medicine, psychology, veterinary sciences and zoology, as well as in animal sanctuaries, biomedical research facilities, museums and zoos...

 at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology

The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is a museum affiliated with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.Founded in 1866, the Peabody Museum is one of the oldest and largest museums focusing on anthropological material, and is particularly strong in New World ethnography and...

. He also teaches at Harvard.

Professor DeVore was doing field research on the behavior and ecology of baboon

Baboon

Baboons are African and Arabian Old World monkeys belonging to the genus Papio, part of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. There are five species, which are some of the largest non-hominoid members of the primate order; only the mandrill and the drill are larger...

s in 1959, at the same time Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall

Dame Jane Morris Goodall, DBE , is a British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace. Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 45-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National...

 was doing her research on chimpanzee

Chimpanzee

Chimpanzee, sometimes colloquially chimp, is the common name for the two extant species of ape in the genus Pan. The Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:...

s and Robert Ardrey

Robert Ardrey

Robert Ardrey was an American playwright and screenwriter who returned to his academic training in anthropology and the behavioral sciences in the 1950s....

 was writing African Genesis, and has also studied the San of southern Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

. DeVore was also an early supporter of the field of sociobiology

Sociobiology

Sociobiology is a field of scientific study which is based on the assumption that social behavior has resulted from evolution and attempts to explain and examine social behavior within that context. Often considered a branch of biology and sociology, it also draws from ethology, anthropology,...

.

Professor DeVore has also appeared on many television programs as an expert or narrator.

Irven DeVore once said, "There is no excuse for boring students when you're talking about human nature. It's too interesting."

DEGREES:
B.A. 1956, University of Texas, Philosophy and Anthropology,
M.A. 1959, University of Chicago, Anthropology,
Ph.D. 1962, University of Chicago, Anthropology,
M.A. 1963, Harvard University, Honorary

AWARDS:
President, Section H (Anthropology), American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1988-89
Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, elected 1968
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, elected 1967
Fellow, American Anthropological Association, elected 1962
The Walker Prize for Science, Museum of Science, Boston, 1970
Lifetime Achievement Award, Institute of Human Origins, New York, 1990

Teaching and Fellowships

• Chairman, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, 1987-1992
• Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology, since 1991
• Distinguished Visiting Professor, University of Cape Town, South Africa, 1992
• Professor of Anthropology and Biology, Harvard University, since 1969
• Visiting Lecturer, Human Biology, Stanford University, 1964 and 1966
• Lecturer in Anthropology, Harvard University, 1963
• Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, 1962-63
• Fellow, Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science, Berkeley, 1961
• Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, 1960-61

Offices in Professional Organizations (selected):

• Director, 1996-97, and Acting Director, 1994, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University
• Trustee, 1974-present, Co-Chair, Science & Grants Committee, 1980-present, L. S. B. Leakey Foundation, San Francisco, California
• Board of Advisors, 1976-94, The Center for Field Research ("Earthwatch"), Belmont, Massachusetts
• Co-Founder and President, 1986-present, Dolphins of Shark Bay Research Foundation, Western Australia
• Board of Directors, 1973-94, Cultural Survival, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Advisory Council, Section H (Anthropology), 1987-90, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, D.C.
• Advisory Council, 1979-83, Wenner-Gren Foundation, New York, New York
• Co-Founder, Kalahari Peoples Fund, 1970
• Executive Board, 1970-73, American Anthropological Association, Washington, D. C.
• Board of Directors, 1972-75, Foundations' Fund for Research in Psychiatry, New Haven
• Advisory Committee on Primate Research Centers, 1964-67, National Institutes of Health
• Board of Directors, 1968-72, Education Development Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Advisor, 1968-72, The Danforth Foundation, St. Louis, Missouri
• Board of Directors, 1971-73, Ninth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethological Sciences, Inc., Chicago
• Committee on Conservation of Nonhuman Primates, 1972-73, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.

Books

• Primate Behavior: Field Studies of Monkeys and Apes, ed., Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York.
• 1963 Baboon Behavior Awarded first prize by the Educational Film Library Association, 1963.
• 1965 The Primates, with S. Eimerl (Series: LIFE Nature Library
  Life Nature Library
  The Life Nature Library was a popular series of hardbound books published by Time-Life between 1961 and 1965. Each of the 25 volumes explored a major topic of the natural world. They were intended for, and written at a level appropriate to, an educated lay readership.Each volume was written by a...
  
  ), Time-Life
  Time-Life
  Time–Life is a creator and direct marketer of books, music, video/DVD, and multimedia products. Its products are sold throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia through television, print, retail, the Internet, telemarketing, and direct sales....
  
  , New York.
• 1968 Man the Hunter, with Richard B. Lee, eds. Aldine Publ., Chicago.
• 1976 Kalahari Hunter-Gatherers, with Richard B. Lee, eds., Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• 1982 Field Guide for the Study of Adolescence, with Beatrice Whiting, John Whiting, et al. A 200-page field manual prepared by the staff and post-doctoral trainees for use at the field sites in our cross-cultural study of adolescence; revision for publication as a general field guide is under consideration.
• 1990 Current Studies on Primate Socioecology and Evolution.
• 1992 Socioecology of baboons in the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve, 1958-92.

External links

• Curriculum vitae - his professional résumé
• Interview transcript
• Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology