Scott Atran (born 1952) is an American and French anthropologist who is a Direct or of Research in Anthropology at the Centre National

de la Recherche Scientifiq ue in Paris, Senior Research Fellow at Oxford University in England, Presidentia l Scholar at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, and also holds of fices at the University of Michigan. He has studied and written about terrorism, [1] violence[2] and religion,[3] and has done fieldwork with terrorists and Isla mic fundamentalists,[4] as well as political leaders.[5] Contents 1 2 3 4 5 6 Education and early career Later research and career Research on Conflict Negotiation Field Research on Terrorism Other Work Bibliography 6.1 As sole author 6.2 As editor or co-author 7 References 8 External links Education and early career Atran was born in New York City in 1952 and he received his PhD in anthropology from Columbia University. While a student he became assistant to anthropologist Margaret Mead at the American Museum of Natural History. In 1974 he originated a debate at the Abbaye de Royaumont in France on the nature of universals in huma n thought and society,[6] with the participation of linguist Noam Chomsky, psych ologist Jean Piaget, anthropologists Gregory Bateson and Claude L?vi-Strauss,[7] and biologists Fran?ois Jacob and Jacques Monod, which Harvard's Harold Gardner and others consider a milestone in the development of cognitive science.[8] Later research and career Atran has experimented on the ways scientists and ordinary people categorize and reason about nature,[9][10][11] on the cognitive and evolutionary psychology of religion,[12][13][14][15] His work has been widely published internationally in the popular press, and in scientific journals in a variety of disciplines. He h as briefed members of the U.S. Congress and the National Security Council staff at the White House on the The Devoted Actor versus the Rational Actor in Managin g World Conflict,[16] on the Comparative Anatomy and Evolution of Global Network Terrorism,[17] and on Pathways to and from Violent Extremism.[18] He was an ear ly critic of U.S. intervention in Iraq[19] and of deepening involvement in Afgha nistan.[20] Atran has also been a staunch opponent of political attempts to eliminate govern ment funding for social science, arguing that it is critical to the national int erest, including innovation and security in business, technology, medicine and d efense.[21] Research on Conflict Negotiation Atran has published research on the limits of rational choice in political and c ultural conflict.[22][23][24][25] He has collaborated on research on how politic al negotiations could be made more likely to produce agreement. Atran and the ps ychologists Jeremy Ginges and Douglas Medin and political scientist Khalil Shika ki conducted an experiment [26] that surveyed "600 Jewish settlers in the West B ank, more than 500 Palestinian refugees, and more than 700 Palestinian students, half of whom identified with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad."[27] The rese archers divided the subjects into three groups, each of which was presented with a different "hypothetical peace deal." In the basic situation, those surveyed w ere presented with "a two-state solution in which the Israelis would withdraw fr om 99 percent of the West Bank and Gaza but would not have to absorb Palestinian

refugees"; the proposal "did not go over well."[28] For the second group, the h ypothetical deal "was sweetened with cash compensation from the United States an d the European Union, such as a billion dollars a year for a hundred years, or a guarantee that the people would live in peace and prosperity. With these sweete ners on the table, the nonabsolutists, as expected, softened their opposition a bit. But the absolutists, forced to contemplate a taboo tradeoff, were even more disgusted, angry, and prepared to resort to violence."[29] But for the third gr oup, the proposed two-state solution was "augmented with a purely symbolic decla ration by the enemy in which it compromised on one of its sacred values." In the deal presented to Israeli settlers, the Palestinians "would give up any claims to their right of return" or "would be required to recognize the historic and le gitimate right of the Jewish people to Eretz Israel"[30]; in that presented to t he Palestinians, Israel "would recognize the historic and legitimate right of th e Palestinians to their own state and would apologize for all wrongs done to the Palestinian people," or would "give up what they believe is their sacred right to the West Bank" or would "symbolically recognize the historic legitimacy of th e right of return [without in fact granting it]"[31]. In summarizing the result, cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker says, "Unlike the bribes of money or peace , the symbolic concession of a sacred value by the enemy, especially when it ack nowledges a sacred value on one's own side, reduced the absolutists' anger, disg ust, and willingness to endorse violence."[32] Atran has been engaged in conflict negotiations in the Middle East[33][34][35] Field Research on Terrorism His work on the ideology and social evolution of transnational terrorism, which has included fieldwork with mujahedin and supporters in Europe, the Middle East, Central and Southeast Asia, and North Africa, has challenged common assumptions . Steven Pinker summarizes some of Atran's findings thus: "Far from being ignora nt, impoverished, nihilistic, or mentally ill, suicide terrorists tend to be edu cated, middle class, morally engaged, and free of obvious psychopathology. Atran concluded that many of the motives may be found in nepotistic altruism... [Atra n shows that] Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups [hold] out a carrot r ather than a stick to the terrorist's family in the form of generous monthly sti pends, lump-sum payments, and massive prestige in the community.... Atran has [a lso] found that suicide terrorists can be recruited without these direct incenti ves. Probably the most effective call to martyrdom is the opportunity to join a happy band of brothers. Terrorist cells often begin as gangs of underemployed si ngle young men who come together in cafes, dorms, soccer clubs, barbershops, or Internet chat rooms and suddenly find meaning in their lives by a commitment to the new platoon.... Commitment to the group is intensified by religion, not just the literal promise of paradise but the feeling of spiritual awe that comes fro m submerging oneself in a crusade, a calling, a vision quest, or a jihad. [Atran writes that religion] may also turn a commitment to a cause into a sacred value - a good that may not be traded off against something else, including life itse lf. The commitment can be further stoked by the thirst for revenge, which in the case of militant Islamism takes the form of vengeance for the harm and humiliat ion suffered by any Muslin anywhere on the planet at any time in history, or for symbolic affronts such as the presence of infidel soldiers on sacred Muslim soi l."[36] Atran is quoted as summarizing his work thus: "When you look at young people lik e the ones who grew up to blow up trains in Madrid in 2004, carried out the slau ghter on the London underground in 2005, hoped to blast airliners out of the sky en route to the United States in 2006 and 2009, and journeyed far to die killin g infidels in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia; when you look at wh om they idolize, how they organize, what bonds them and what drives them; then y ou see that what inspires the most lethal terrorists in the world today is not s o much the Koran or religious teachings as a thrilling cause and call to action that promises glory and esteem in the eyes of friends, and through friends, eter

nal respect and remembrance in the wider world that they will never live to enjo y.... Jihad is an egalitarian, equal-opportunity employer: ...fraternal, fast-br eaking, thrilling, glorious, and cool."[37] Other Work Atran conducts ongoing research in Guatemala, Mexico, and the U.S. on universal and culture-specific aspects of biological categorization and environmental reas oning and decision making among Maya and other Native Americans.[38] Atran's debates with "new atheists" Sam Harris, Dan Dennett, Richard Dawkins and others during the Beyond Belief symposium on the limits of reason and the role of religion in modern society highlight the differences between "new atheists" w ho see religion as fundamentally false and politically and socially repressive, or worse, and those like Atran who see unfalsifiable but semantically absurd rel igious beliefs as historically critical to the formation of large-scale societie s and current motivators for both conflict and cooperation.[39][40][41][42] Atran's publications include Cognitive Foundations of Natural History: Towards a n Anthropology of Science, In Gods We Trust: The Evolutionary Landscape of Relig ion, Plants of the Peten Itza' Maya (co-authored with Ximena Lois and Edilberto Ucan Ek), The Native Mind and the Cultural Construction of Nature (co-authored w ith Douglas Medin), and Talking to the Enemy: Faith, Brotherhood, and the (Un)Ma king of Terrorists. Atran has taught at Cambridge University, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and th e ?cole des Hautes ?tudes in Paris. He is currently a research director in anthr opology at the French National Centre for Scientific Research and member of the Jean Nicod Institute at the ?cole Normale Sup?rieure. He is also visiting profes sor of psychology and public policy at the University of Michigan, presidential scholar in sociology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York Cit y, senior research fellow at Harris Manchester College, Oxford University, and c ofounder of ARTIS Research and Risk Modeling. Bibliography As sole author Fondements de l'histoire naturelle Bruxelles: Editions Complexe, 1986. Pp. 2 44. ISBN 2-87027-180-8 [43] Cognitive Foundations of Natural History: Towards an Anthropology of Science Cambridge University Press, 1993 ISBN=9780521438711[44] In Gods We Trust: The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion Oxford University P ress, 2002; ISBN=9780198034056 [45] Talking to the Enemy: Faith, Brotherhood, and the (Un)Making of Terrorists H arperCollins, 2010; ISBN=9780062020741 [46] As editor or co-author Histoire du concept d'espece dans les sciences de la vie, ed. (1987) Folkbiology, ed. with Douglas Medin (1999) Plants of the Peten Itza' Maya, with Ximena Lois and Edilberto Ucan Ek (2004 ) The Native Mind and the Cultural Construction of Nature, with Douglas Medin (2008) Values, Empathy, and Fairness Across Social Barriers. ed., Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, with Oscar Vilarroya, Arcadi Navarro, Kevin Ochsner a nd Adolf Tobena (2009) References ^ Michael, Bond (October 25, 2010). "How to catch the jihadi bug ". New Scienti st. Retrieved March 18, 2013.

^ Sharon, Begley (August 25, 2006). "Science Journal: Key to peace in Mideas t may be sacred beliefs ". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 18, 2013. ^ Henig, Robin Marantz (March 4, 2007). "Darwin s God". The New York Times. Re trieved March 18, 2013. ^ "U.S. Government Efforts to Counter Violent Extremism, Committee on Armed Services United States Senate, Government Printing Office" (PDF). Retrieved Marc h 18, 2013. ^ Bohannon, John (March 11, 2010). "Should Social Scientists Help the U.S. F ight Terror?". Sciencemag.org. Retrieved March 18, 2013. ^ Lawrence Kritzman, Ed., The Columbia History of Twentieth-Century French T hought, New York, Columbia University Press, 2006, pp. 179-180, ISBN=978-0231-10 0791-4 ^ Kwong, Emily (November 17, 2009). "Columbia antro dept. remembers Claude L ?vi-Strauss". Columbia Spectator. Retrieved July 5, 2013. ^ Harold Gardner, Encounter at Royaumont, in Art, Mind, and Brain: A Cogniti ve Approach to Creativity, New York, Basic Books, 1982, pp. 16-26, ISBN=97804650 04447 ^ Benson, Etienne (April 2003). "Thinking Green". American Psychological Ass ociation. Retrieved March 18, 2013. ^ Scott Atran (1998). "Folkbiology and the anthropology of science: Cognitiv e universals and cultural particulars". Behavioral and Brain Sciences 21: 547 609. ^ Scott Atran, Douglas Medin, Norbert Ross, Elizabeth Lynch, John Coley, Edi lberto Ucan Ek ?, Valentina Vapnarsky (June 22, 1999). "Folkecology and commons ma nagement in the Maya Lowlands". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 96 (13): 7598 7603. ^ Bulbulia, Joseph (2009). "Religion as Evolutionary Cascade: On Scott Atran , In M. Stausberg (Ed.), Contemporary Theories of Religion: A Critical Companion ". Routledge. Retrieved March 18, 2013. ^ Scott Atran and Ari Norenzayan, "Religion's Evolutionary Landscape: Counte rintuition, commitment, compassion, communion" BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES, (2 004) v. 27, pp. 713 770 url=http://www.psych.ubc.ca/~ara/Manuscripts/AtranNorenz ayanBBS.pdf ^ "The Evolution of Religion". Mitpressjournals.org. Retrieved March 18, 201 3. ^ "Religious and Sacred Imperatives in Human Conflict". Sciencemag.org. Retr ieved May 28, 2012. ^ "Devoted Actor Versus Rational Actor for Understanding World Conflict". Cs tsp.aaas.org. November 23, 2009. Retrieved December 9, 2011. ^ "Terrorism and Radicalization: What Not to DO, What to DO". Edge.org. Retr ieved December 9, 2011. ^ "Microsoft Word Atran Statement 3-10-10 ETC Hearing" (PDF). Retrieved Dece mber 9, 2011. ^ Scott Atran, "US off Target in Terror War," Detroit Free Press, Marh 7, 20 03 |url=http://sitemaker.umich.edu/satran/files/satran_3-7-03_detroit_fp.pdf ^ Atran, Scott (December 12, 2009). "To Beat Al Qaeda, Look to the East". Th e New York Times. Pakistan;Indonesia;Afghanistan. Retrieved December 9, 2011. ^ "Social Warfare". Foreign Policy. March 15, 2013. Retrieved March 18, 2013 . ^ Scott Atran. "Genesis of Suicide Terrorism". Sciencemag.org. Retrieved Dec ember 9, 2011. ^ "Sacred Bariers to Conflict Resolution" (PDF). Retrieved December 9, 2011. ^ "Biology of Cultural Conflict". royalsocietypublishing.org. Retrieved May 28, 2012. ^ Bohannon, John (February 15, 2011). "Survey Says: War is the Irrational Ch oice". Sciencemag.org. Retrieved March 18, 2013. ^ Jeremy Ginges, Scott Atran, Douglas Medin, and Khalil Shikaki, "Sacred bou nds on rational resolution of violent political conflict," Proceedings of the Na tional Academy of Sciences, 2007, vol. 104, pp. 7357-60 ^ Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, Viking Press, 2011, pp. 638, ISBN=978-0-670-02295-3

^ Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, Viking Press, 2011, pp. 638, ISBN=978-0-670-02295-3 ^ Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, Viking Press, 2011, pp. 638-9, ISBN=978-0-670-02295-3 ^ Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, Viking Press, 2011, pp. 639, ISBN=978-0-670-02295-3 ^ Jeremy Ginges, Scott Atran, Douglas Medin, and Khalil Shikaki, "Sacred bou nds on rational resolution of violent political conflict," Proceedings of the Na tional Academy of Sciences, 2007, vol. 104, pp. 7357-60 ^ Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, Viking Press, 2011, pp. 639, ISBN=978-0-670-02295-3 ^ Atran, Scott (January 24, 2009). "How Words Could End a War". The New York Times. Israel;West Bank;Gaza Strip. Retrieved December 9, 2011. ^ Atran, Scott (June 29, 2010). "Why We Talk To Terrorists". The New York Ti mes. Retrieved December 9, 2011. ^ Atran, Scott (October 26, 2010). "Turning the Taliban Against Al Qaeda". T he New York Times. Afghanistan. Retrieved December 9, 2011. ^ Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, New York, Viking Press, 2012, pp. 356-57, ISBN=978-0-670-02295-3 ^ Atran testimony to U.S. Senate, quoted in Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, New York, Viking Press, 2012, pp. 357 -58, ISBN=978-0-670-02295-3 ^ Enfield, Nick (September 18, 2009). "Common Tragedy". Times Literary Suppl ement. Retrieved March 18, 2013. ^ "The Reality Club: BEYOND BELIEF". Edge.org. Retrieved December 9, 2011. ^ Gray, John (December 2010). "The Privilege of Absurdity". Literary Review. Retrieved March 18, 2013. ^ Bartlett, Tom (August 13, 2012). "Dusting Off GOD: A new science of religi on says God has gotten a bad rap". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved March 18, 2013. ^ "God and the Ivory Tower". Foreign Policy. August 6, 2012. Retrieved March 18, 2013. ^ http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=2 933888 ^ http://books.google.com/books/about/Cognitive_Foundations_of_Natural_Histo ry.html?id=ITW9tzQMQr4C ^ http://books.google.com/books/about/In_Gods_We_Trust_The_Evolutionary_Land sc.html?id=P1vrgpf8I14C ^ http://books.google.com/books/about/Talking_to_the_Enemy.html?id=FJjzUbVM3 _EC External links Atran's University of Michigan site Atran's Oxford University site Atran's Huffington Post Contribution Page