Melvin Konner

Melvin Joel Konner (born 1946) is an American anthropologist who is the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Anthropology and of Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology at Emory University. He studied at Brooklyn College, CUNY (1966), where he met Marjorie Shostak, whom he later married and with whom he had three children. He also has a PhD from Harvard University (1973) and a MD from Harvard Medical School (1985).

From 1985 on, he contributed substantially to developing the concept of a Paleolithic diet and its impact on health, publishing along with Stanley Boyd Eaton, and later also with his wife Marjorie Shostak and with Loren Cordain.

Raised in an Orthodox Jewish family, Konner has stated that he lost his faith at age 17.

Selected bibliography

 * Konner, Melvin J. (2019) Believers: Faith in Human Nature. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0393651867
 * Konner, Melvin J. (2015) Women After All: Sex, Evolution, and the End of Male Supremacy. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0393352313
 * Konner, Melvin J. (2010) The Evolution of Childhood. Cambridge, MA : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674045668
 * Konner, Melvin J. (2009) The Jewish Body. Knopf. ISBN 978-0805242362
 * Konner, Melvin J. (2003) Unsettled: An Anthropology of the Jews. New York : Viking Compass. ISBN 978-0670032440
 * Konner, Melvin J. (2002) The Tangled Wing: Biological Constraints on the Human Spirit, 2nd ed. (original 1982) New York: Times Books. ISBN 978-0805072792
 * Konner, Melvin J. (1993) Medicine at the Crossroads: The Crisis in Healthcare. Pantheon Books. ISBN 978-0679415459
 * Konner, Melvin J. (1990) Why the Reckless Survive . . . and Other Secrets of Human Nature. New York: Viking. ISBN 978-0670829361
 * Konner, Melvin J. (1987) Becoming a Doctor: A Journey of Initiation in Medical School. New York: Viking. ISBN 978-0140111163