SOROKIN, PITIRIM A. (Ed.). Explorations in Altruistic Love and Behavior. Pp. viii, 353. Boston: The Beacon Press, 1950. $4.00
| Author | James H.S. Bossard |
| Published date | 01 March 1951 |
| Date | 01 March 1951 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/000271625127400184 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
251
ingly
to
narrow
for
the
poor,
the
unedu-
cated,
and
the
‘foreign.&dquo;’
While
previous
migrants
to
New
York
have
often
formed
organizations
of
com-
patriots,
even
the
early
arrivals
among
the
Puerto
Ricans
(84
per
cent
of
the
men.
and
91
per
cent
of
the
women)
do
not
join
organized
groups.
Participation
in
labor
unions
is
relatively
high
since
51
per
cent,
regardless
of
sex,
color,
or
degree
of
skill,
report
union
membership.
In
general,
how-
ever,
the
Puerto
Rican
migrant’s
&dquo;effective
social
world,
the
one
from
which
he
gains
such
security
as
he
has,
is
confined
to
the
household,
the
apartment
house,
and
the
street.&dquo;
In
New
York,
the
Puerto
Rican
becomes
aware
of
other
minorities,
and
he
may
ac-
quire
prejudice
against
other
groups.
In
some
parts
of
Harlem,
bitter
conflict
exists
between
Puerto
Ricans
and
Negroes.
Those
who
are
intermediate
racially
are
dismayed
to
find
that
no
distinction
is
made
by
conti-
nentals
between
those
of
mixed
and
those
of
unmixed
Negro
ancestry.
One
reaction
to
the
New
York
environment
is
the
de-
velopment
of
a
&dquo;Latino&dquo;
type
of
solidarity
which
leads
Puerto Ricans
towards
both
a
non-Puerto
Rican
and
a
non-American
type
of
adjustment.
Apparently
the
assimilation
of
Puerto
Ricans
will
be
a
slower
process
than
has
been
the
case
with
some
of
the
earlier
migrant
groups.
In
the
meantime,
adapta-
tion,
defined
in
this
study
as
&dquo;inconspicuous
functioning
with
psychic
contentment,&dquo;
will
be
influenced
greatly
by
these
factors:
hav-
ing
a
job,
being
a
male,
having
more ~educa-
tion,
being
younger
in
age,
and
being
white.
There
is
an
impressive
absence
of
hopeful
aspirations
among
the
migrants
in
this
sample.
GEORGE
E.
SIMPSON
Oberlin
College
SOROKIN,
PITIRIM
A.
(Ed.).
Explorations
in
Altruistic
Love
and
Behavior.
Pp.
viii,
353.
Boston:
The
Beacon
Press,
1950.
$4.00.
This
book
is
an
attempt
to
explore
the
nature
and
bases-religious,
biological,
psy-
chological,
parapsychological,
philosophical,
mathematical,
.and
sociocultural-of
altru-
istic
love
and
behavior.
It
is
the
second
in
a
series
of
publications
of
the
Harvard
University
Research
Center
in
Altruistic
Integration
and
Creativity.
The
first
one,
devoted
to
the
study
of
American
&dquo;Good
Neighbors&dquo;
and
Christian
Saints,
was
re-
viewed
in
the
November,
1950,
issue
of
THE
ANNALS;
a
third
one,
devoted
to
the
types,
techniques,
and
factors
of
altruistic
experi-
ence,
is
promised
for
early
publication.
Professor
Sorokin,
the
director of
the
Research
Center,
is
the
editor
of
the
pres-
ent
symposium
and
also
appears
as
part
author;
seventeen
other
authors
contribute
to
it.
Included
in
this
list
are
Ashley
Montagu,
Trigant
Burrow,
Gordon
Allport,
F.
S.
C.
Northrop,
Milton
Greenblatt
and
George
Zipf.
In
addition
to
the
American
contributors,
there
are
Therese
Brosse,
of
the
Paris
University
School
of
Medicine,
and
Laurent
Dechesne,
of
Liege
University.
Specific
mention
of,
and
comment
on,
the
contributions
included
are
manifestly
impossible
within
the
confines
of
this
re-
view.
Almost
all
of
them
are
explorations
or
extensions
of
the
central
theme
or
pur-
pose
of
the
Harvard
Research
Center;
namely,
the
objective
and
scientific
study
of
all
aspects
of
altruistic
and
creative
be-
havior,
to
serve
as
an
offset
and
counter-
balance
to
all
the
emphasis
upon
the
study
of
the
seamy
side
of
our
culture.
Various
special
interest
groups
of
readers
will
find
representation
in
the
symposium
of
their
particular
interest.
Students
in
the
social
sciences
will
be
drawn
to
the
analyses
of
behavior
tendencies
of
college
students,
presented
by
Sorokin;
the
trenchant
sum-
mary
of
the
social
development
of
the
indi-
vidual
by
Montagu;
the
phylobiological
prescriptions
of
Burrow;
the
preachment
for
creativity
by
Brosse;
and
Allport’s
ex-
planation
of
the
scientific
&dquo;flight
from
ten-
derness.&dquo;
There
is
relatively
little
overlapping
in
this
volume,
despite
the
number
of
writers,
all
of
whom
discuss
the
same
general
theme.
There
is,
however,
considerable
diversity
of
procedure-some
progress
slowly
through
accretions
of
scientific
analyses,
some
by
and
from
citation
of
sources,
some
by
mathematical
formulae,
some
by
analogy,
and
some
by
preachment
and
exhortation.
All
in
all,
it
is
an
intriguing
and
stimulating
book,
intended
to
provoke
and
explore
and
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