Gerhard Emmanuel Lenski, Jr. | Biography

Gerhard Lenski was born on August 13, 1924, in Washington, D.C., to parents Gerhard Emmanuel, Sr. and Christine (Umhau) Lenski. He served in the U.S. Army Air Force from 1943 to 1945, earning the rank of sergeant. Attending Yale University, he earned his B.A. in 1947 and his Ph.D. in sociology in 1950. Upon graduation, he accepted a position first as an instructor and later as an associate professor at the University of Michigan. In 1963 he moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to become a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina, chairing the Department of Sociology from 1969 to 1972. During his ten-year tenure at the University of North Carolina, he held a concurrent position as a research professor in the Institute for Research in Social Science. When he retired in 1973, he was named professor emeritus. Lenski married Jean Virginia Capplemann in 1948; they had four children.

Lenski's professional endeavors outside the classroom included serving as an associate editor for the journal Social Forces, beginning in 1963, and as a consultant for McGraw-Hill Book Company (1963-1970). His published works include The Religious Factor (1961), Power and Privilege (1966; with Jean Lenski), Human Societies: An Introduction to Macrosociology (1970; with Jean Lenski). His most influential work was completed in Human Societies, which was re-published in 1974, 1978, 1982, 1987, and 1991 and continues to appear regularly on the reading list of college sociology classes.

The Religious Factor is based on a 1958 survey study that included personal interviews with 656 people in Detroit regarding their religious and communal involvement, attitudes, and behavior. Lenski's goal was to discover the impact of religion on secular life, including politics, economics, and family life in the urban setting. In Power and Privilege Lenski sets out a system of social stratification based on "the distributive process in human societies--the process by which scarce values are distributed." In other words, "Who gets what and why"" Basing his theory on the distributive systems, he divides societies into the categories of hunting and gathering, simple horticultural, advanced horticultural, agrarian, and industrial.

Lenski begins Human Societies by offering a definition of society that includes five characteristics. First, a society is territorially distinct, and second, it is made up of a single species of animal. Third, an organizational structure exists by which members of the society interact on a consistent and regular basis. Fourth, as a form of organization, a society subsists on a relatively high degree of interdependence among its members. In other words, members depend on other members to fulfill different roles and functions to provide for the needs of the entire society. Finally, a society maintains independence from outside regulation or control of any significance. Ultimately, Lenski suggests that a society exists "to the degree that a territorially bounded population of animals of a single species maintains ties of association and interdependence and enjoys autonomy."

Offering an evolutionary understanding of the function of society, Lenski proposes that societies did not always exist. They were, in fact, a development in the evolutionary process of the attempt to survive. As societies appeared and proved to be beneficial to survival, they spread widely. Just as characteristics determined survival, such as speed, intelligence, and strength, the development of an organized society became an asset in the struggle to survive. Thus Lenski suggests that "the societal form of organization is a mode of adaptation whereby certain types of organisms have increased their chances of surviving and multiplying." On this premise, Lenski constructs a model of social development that is dependent on the understanding of human society as part of the biological world and its influences.

Arguing that universal statements can be made that encompass the experience of all of the biotic world, Lenski offers eight relevant universals that define the condition of all living organisms. First, all organisms require food, water, and air. Second, because of this need, all living things necessarily interact with, or are dependent on, one another to maintain sustenance. Third, all living things can reproduce at a rate that exceeds the available food supply. Fourth, because living things reproduce at this higher rate, the food supply is continually short. Fifth, with a less than adequate amount of food, competition for it exists. Sixth, although not the norm, in large populations production of genetic variations can be expected. Seventh, due to the competition for sustenance and the fact that differences exist between and among species, certain species will be more suited for survival. Thus a process of natural selection occurs. Lenski lists numerous characteristics such as fecundity, strength and offensive weapons, defensive armament, speed, and social organization. Finally, variation and natural selection bring about organic and behavioral evolution, which is nonrandom and progresses in the direction of the desirable traits of survival.