Chris Knight
Chris Knight is a British anthropologist and high-profile political activist. He became a lecturer in anthropology at the University of East London in 1989 and a professor at the same institution in 2000. Knight is a founding member of the Radical Anthropology Group (RAG).
Knight published his first book, Blood Relations: Menstruation and the origins of culture in 1991. Since then, he has been a major figure in debates on the origins of human symbolic culture and especially the origin of language. He is best-known for the theory that human language, religion and culture emerged in our species not simply by gradual Darwinian evolution, but in a process culminating in revolutionary social change – what is often termed “the first human revolution”.
Initially a supporter of the Militant tendency, Chris Knight was later a founding editor of the journal Labour Briefing, where he remains on the board.
Latest articles by Chris Knight
Great questions of our time
Chris Knight of the Radical Anthropology Group discusses David Graeber’s ideas and activism
Prophet and poet of Russian Revolution
Chris Knight looks at the legacy of Velimir Khlebnikov. This is an edited transcript of a talk given to Communist University 2018
Chomsky divided
Noam Chomsky is a world-famous linguist, cognitive scientist and social critic. But, argues Chris Knight, he keeps his science and politics in two separate mental departments
Contradiction and denial
Noam Chomsky worked on weapons systems for the Pentagon, yet he consistently campaigned against militarism. Chris Knight looks at the controversy provoked by his own critique
Art of revolution
Chris Knight discusses the significance of Leon Trotsky’s Lessons of October and the implications in the event of a Corbyn-led Labour government
An anti-militarist’s moral dilemmas
Despite being employed by an institution responsible for advanced weapons research, writes Chris Knight, Noam Chomsky had a political conscience that refused to lie down
Two Noam Chomskys
Chris Knight discusses his new book, where he contrasts Chomsky, the principled political activist, with Chomsky, the military researcher
Origin of language lies in song
Chris Knight of the Radical Anthropology Group examines one of science’s most intriguing unsolved problems. This is an edited transcript of a talk given to Communist University in August 2015
If Labour wins in 2020
There are many lessons to be drawn from the experience of revolutionary Russia and contemporary Britain. Chris Knight looks back at what he wrote in 1969
What can chimpanzees teach us about human nature?
Chris Knight of the Radical Anthropology Group explores the relationship between sex, language and culture
Anthropology: Luxemburg was right
How do Rosa Luxemburgs ideas on primitive communism stand up today? This is an edited version of a speech given by Chris Knight of the Radical Anthropology Group to this months Historical Materialism conference
Why is the left so afraid of science?
Our struggle to overcome capitalism requires solid scientific foundations, argues Chris Knight of the Radical Anthropology Group
Elaine Morgan: Debt of gratitude
Chris Knight remembers the woman who saw off the savanna hypothesis
Anthropology and women: Genetic evidence is richer than the stale party line
Chris Knight of the Radical Anthropology Group investigates the SWPs impoverished debate on the Marxist theory of womens oppression
Supplement: Early human kinship was matrilineal
Engels was right, says Chris Knight
World-historic defeat of women
Chris Knight of the Radical Anthropology Group examines myths about a supposed "primitive matriarchy"
The pope and the Pentagon
How is it that Noam Chomsky's latest linguistic theories can acquire such a devoted following? Chris Knight of the Radical Anthropology Group continues his examination of Chomsky's life and work
SUPPLEMENT: Extraordinary double-act of Noam Chomsky
When the brain reached a certain level of complexity or when a mutation took place in the genetic instructions it received, the facility for language was installed. This is the myth which suited both the US military-industrial complex and Chomsky's anarcho-syndicalism. Chris Knight examines the paradox
Anti-Marxist myth of our time
Chris Knight examines Noam Chomsky's 'scientific' fairy tales about language and its origins
Giving internationalism new meaning
The Liverpool dockers' March for Social Justice took place 10 years ago, on April 12 1997. Chris Knight of the London Dockers Support Group, who acted as the main link with the Reclaim the Streets movement, looks back at the dockers' historic fight
Chomsky's parallel lives
Chris Knight of the Radical Anthropology Group concludes his examination of a political enigma
US establishment anarchist
Chris Knight of the Radical Anthropology Group continues his examination of the Chomsky enigma
The Chomsky enigma
How is that a powerful critic of US imperialism has been regarded as a valued asset by the US military? In the first of three articles Chris Knight of the Radical Anthropology Group begins his examination of the life and work of Noam Chomsky
Lessons of October
Chris Knight of the Radical Anthropology Group looks at how the Bolsheviks combined illegality and legality
Marxism and scientific revolutions
How are scientific paradigms established? And what does this mean for the politics of the working class? Chris Knight examines the issues
The science of Marxism
Is scientific objectivity compromised by a subordination to the interests of the international working class? Chris Knight examines the issues
Solidarity and sex
The first human revolution was led by women, argues Chris Knight of the Radical Anthropology Group
The science of solidarity
Chris Knight of the Radical Anthropology Group looks at the 'selfish gene' revolution - and draws some rather different conclusions from moralistic liberals