John Baker

Dr. John Randal Baker F.R.S. (23 October 1900 – 8 June 1984) was a biologist, physical anthropologist, and professor at the University of Oxford (where he was the Emeritus Reader in Cytology) in the mid-twentieth century. He is best remembered for his 1974 book, Race, which classifies human races in the same way in which animal subspecies are classified.

Work

In Race, Baker explores, among other things, the nature of civilization, giving 23 criteria by which civilizations may be identified. He explores the relationship between the biological traits and the cultures of five civilizations. Based on these criteria, Baker declared that Mesoamerican societies such as the Aztecs and Maya were not civilizations, and that no indigenous civilizations ever arose in Africa. Baker rejected the methodological relativism that has characterized anthropology since the days of Franz Boas, instead going back to earlier ideas of hereditarianism and cultural evolution.

Together with Michael Polanyi, Baker founded the Society for Freedom in Science in 1940. In March, 1958 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Bibliography

• Sex in man and animals ... with a preface by Julian S. Huxley, 1926
• Man and animals in the New Hebrides, 1929
• Cytological technique, 1933
• Biology in everyday life, 1934
• Chemical control of conception, with a chapter by H. M. Carleton, 1935
• Scientific life, 1942
• Science and the planned state, 1945
• Discovery of the uses of colouring agents in biological micro-technique, 1945
• Path of science, by C.E. Kenneth Mees ... with the cooperation of John R. Baker ... 1946
• Principles of biological microtechnique; a study of fixation and dyeing, 1958
• Cytological technique; the principles underlying routine methods, 1960
• Cell structure and its interpretation; essays presented to John Randal Baker, F.R.S. Edited by S. M. McGee-Russell and K. F. A. Ross, 1968
• Race, 1974
• Evolution : the modern synthesis by Julian Huxley ; with a new introd. edited by John R. Baker, 1974
• Freedom of science, 1975
• Julian Huxley, scientist and world citizen, 1887 to 1975 : a biographical memoir, with a bibliography compiled by Jens-Peter Green, 1978
• Biology of parasitic protozoa, 1982
• Cell theory : a restatement, history, and critique, 1988

See also

• Carleton S. Coon