Gregory Bateson

Gregory Bateson was born on May 9th, 1904, in Grantchester England. His parents were Caroline Durham and William Bateson. William was a renowned geneticist at Cambridge University. Gregory attended Charterhouse public school in London from 1917 to 1921, where he studied zoology. He continued his education at St. Johns College, Cambridge University from 1922 to 1925, where he earned his B.S. in biology at the age of 21. It was during a trip to the Galapagos Islands, that Bateson decided …

…his research crossed the disciplinary boundaries of cybernetics, animal communication, anthropology, ethnography, psychology and biological evolution, his work is particularly hard to classify. Critics have highlighted the concepts of system and environment as central in his work and thinking. Because of the broad span of his studies, Bateson never became a central figure in any one field. Whether his ideas were well understood or not, Bateson seems to have been a very popular culture figure.