Rut Benedict American anthropologist Date of Birth: 05.06.1887 Country: USA

1. Biography of Ruth Benedict
2. Early Life and Education
3. Professional Career
4. Contributions to Anthropology
5. Legacy

Biography of Ruth Benedict

Ruth Fulton Benedict (1887-1948) was an American cultural anthropologist and a prominent representative of the ethnopsychological approach ("culture and personality") in American anthropology. She is known for her contributions to the field of cultural anthropology in the 20th century.

Early Life and Education

Ruth Benedict studied cultural anthropology under the guidance of Franz Boas at Columbia University from 1921 to 1923. During her time there, she conducted fieldwork on Native American cultures and completed her doctoral dissertation on "The Concept of the Guardian Spirit among American Indians."

Professional Career

From 1923 until her death, Benedict taught at Columbia University, where she succeeded Boas as the head of the anthropology department in 1936. In 1947, she was elected the President of the American Anthropological Association. As a professor at Columbia University, she made significant contributions to the understanding of culture and personality.

Contributions to Anthropology

Ruth Benedict's early fieldwork among Native American tribes, particularly the Zuni people, provided her with valuable material for her research. She believed that individual personality and its psychological characteristics were shaped by culture and its specific values and norms. She pioneered the use of Freudian concepts in anthropology, exploring the psychological determinants of cultural variations.

In her article "Configurations of Culture" (1923), Benedict drew upon Nietzsche's differentiation of cultures into "Apollonian" and "Dionysian" types. She argued that intercultural differences could be primarily explained by variations in individual psychology, stating that cultures are "individual psychology projected on a large screen."

In her work "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword" (1946), Benedict utilized her technique of "remote study of culture" to analyze Japanese culture. Despite never having been to Japan or knowing the Japanese language, she employed techniques such as analyzing scientific and artistic literature, studying diaries of prisoners of war, watching Japanese films, and interviewing Japanese immigrants in the United States. Her book explored the hierarchical nature of Japanese culture, emphasizing concepts such as "on" (benevolence) and "giri" (duty), as well as child-rearing practices in Japanese families.

Legacy

Ruth Benedict's works, including "Patterns of Culture" (1934) and "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword," have had a lasting impact on the field of cultural anthropology. Her cultural relativist approach, which emphasized the uniqueness of each culture and the importance of understanding phenomena within their cultural context, remains influential to this day.

Many of Benedict's students, such as Margaret Mead, Robert Lowie, and Morris Opler, expanded upon and further developed her techniques and theories. Despite some criticism, particularly for her portrayal of Japanese culture in "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword," Benedict's contributions to Japanese studies and cultural anthropology as a whole have solidified her status as a classic and influential figure in the field.