John Crook

John Hurrell Crook (27 November 1930 – 15 July 2011) was a British ethologist who filled a pivotal role in British primatology.[1]

As Reader in Ethology (animal behaviour) in the Psychology Department of Bristol University, he led a research group studying social and reproductive behaviour in birds and primates throughout the 1970s–80s, turning to the socio-psychological anthropology of Himalayan peoples in the 1990s.[2] In his later years he was the Teacher of the Western Chan Fellowship.[3]

Early life

He was educated at Oakmount School, Southampton and Sherborne School, Dorset.

He completed his National Service in Hong Kong, where he first encountered Chinese Zen (Chan) Buddhism.[4]

Academic career

Crook was a pioneer in the early development of socio-ecology, adding this dimension to ethology which was then dominated by the ideas of Niko Tinbergen and Konrad Lorenz. His student paper on the gulls of Southampton Water[5] while at University College, Southampton, led to his doctoral study at Jesus College, Cambridge[6] of the weaver birds (Ploceinae) of West Africa, supervised by William Thorpe and Robert Hinde. This was followed by further research in India, the Seychelles Islands and East Africa. His theoretical interpretation subsequently contributed to David Lack’s discussion of the behavioural component in avian population research.[7] His fieldwork was further supported by laboratory experimentation on the endocrinal basis for the behaviour observed in the field.[8]

After moving to Bristol University, he collaborated with Professor K.R.L. Hall in establishing a centre for primate studies, extending socio-ecological principles to primates,[9] supervising doctoral projects and leading field research in Ethiopia on the Gelada Baboon and in Morocco on the Barbary Macaque, subsequently developed by Robin Dunbar and John Deag respectively.

His year[10] as Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University in California introduced him to the new techniques of humanistic psychotherapy. On return to Bristol, his students requested him to demonstrate these methods, leading to the creation of the Bristol Encounter Centre and to his teaching of the subject widely in the UK, especially based on workshops run at his retreat centre in mid Wales.

In 1977 Crook led an expedition to Zanskar in the Ladakh Himalayas, a pilot study focussing on polyandrous marriage.[11] For several years, he and colleagues led further expeditions studying the geology, agriculture, social and family life and monastic practices in this remote, high-altitude region.[12] He later returned with James Low, a Tibetologist fluent in the texts and language, to study the lives of Buddhist hermits in the mountains.[13]

Retiring early, he began practicing Zen Buddhism in intensive retreats taught in New York by Chan Master Sheng Yen of Dharma Drum Monastery, Taiwan, who in 1993 transmitted to him the authority to teach Chinese Zen.[14] Forming the Western Chan Fellowship with colleagues, Crook developed a programme of retreats adapted to Western Zen practitioners.

Crook published around a hundred scientific papers in ornithology, ethology and evolutionary psychology, and several books focussing on consciousness[15] and Zen practice.[16] His last work was World Crisis and Buddhist Humanism (New Age Books, Delhi 2009).

He died on 15 July 2011, shortly after a gathering of many former students and colleagues in Somerset to celebrate his life. Dr Innes Cuthill, Professor of Behavioural Ecology at Bristol University, described him as "a pivotal figure in the rise of British primatology and socio-ecology".[1]

Honours

Publications

See also

References

  1. ^ a b John Hurrell Crook, 1930-2011, obituary. University of Bristol. 20 July 2011.
  2. ^ Crook, J.H. 2007. Shamans, yogins and indigenous psychologies. Chapter 35. In Dunbar R.I.M. and L. Barrett. The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology. Oxford.
  3. ^ www.westernchanfellowship.org
  4. ^ Crook, J.H. 1997. Hilltops of the Hong Kong Moon. Minerva.
  5. ^ Crook, J.H. 1953. An observational study of the gulls of Southampton Water. British Birds 46: 386-397.
  6. ^ Crook, J.H. 1964. The Evolution of Social organisation and Visual Communication in the Weaver Birds (Ploceinae). Behaviour Monograph. 10. Brill. Leiden.
  7. ^ Lack, D. 1966. Population Studies of Birds. Clarendon. Oxford, quoting Crook, J.H. 1965. The adaptive significance of Avian Social organisations. Symp. Zool. Soc. Lond. 14: 181-218. Also Crook, J.H. 1970. Social organisation and the environment: aspects of contemporary Social Ethology. Animal Behaviour 18: 197-209.
  8. ^ For example: Crook, J.H. and P. Butterfield. 1970. Gender role in the social system of Quelea. pp. 221-248. In Social behaviour in Birds and Mammals. J.H. Crook (Ed.). Academic. London.
  9. ^ Crook, J.H. and J.S. Gartlan. 1966. Evolution of Primate Societies. Nature 210: 1200-1203.
  10. ^ See: Crook, J.H. (Ed.) 1970. Social behaviour in Birds and Mammals: Essays on the Social Ethology of Animals and Man. Academic. London.
  11. ^ Crook, J.H. and S. Crook. 1988. Tibetan polyandry: problems of adaptation and fitness. In: L. Betzig, M. Borgerhof Mulder and P. Turke (Eds). Human Reproductive Behaviour. Cambridge.
  12. ^ Crook, J.H. and H. Osmaston (Eds.) Himalayan Buddhist Villages. Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi and Bristol University. 1994.
  13. ^ Crook, J.H. 1995. Psychological processes in Cultural and Genetic Co-evolution. In: E. Jones and V. Reynolds (Eds.) Survival and Religion. Wiley. Crook. J.H. and J. Low. 1997. The Yogins of Ladakh: A Pilgrimage Among the Hermits of the Buddhist Himalayas. Motilal Banarsidass. Delhi.
  14. ^ Li, R. (Ed.) 2002. Chan comes West. Dharma Drum Publications.
  15. ^ Crook, J.H. 1980. The Evolution of Human Consciousness. Clarendon. Oxford.
  16. ^ Crook, J.H. 2002. Illuminating Silence. Watkins. London. Crook, J.H. 2009. The Koans of Layman John. Lulu.

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