The well-known anthropologist and social biologist explores the subtle vocabulary of kinesics, or communicative body motion, to better understand the significance of such silent signals as posture, gesture, and eye and facial movements in encounter rituals
Books, such as The Natural Superiority of Women (1953), of Ashley Montagu, originally Israel Ehrenberg, a British-American, helped to popularize anthropology.
As a young man, he changed his name to "Montague Francis Ashley-Montagu". After relocating to the United States, he used the name "Ashley Montagu."
This humanist of Jewish ancestry related topics, such as race and gender, to politics and development. He served as the rapporteur or appointed investigator in 1950 for the The Race Question, statement of educational, scientific, and cultural organization of United Nations.