| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
Ruth Benedict (née Fulton) ( June 6, 1887 - September 17, 1948) was an American anthropologist.
She was born in New York. She attended Vassar College, graduating in 1909.
She entered graduate studies at Columbia University in 1919, studying under Franz Boas, receiving her PhD and joining the faculty in 1923. Margaret Mead was one of her students.
Benedict wrote poetry under the name "Anne Singleton" until the early 1930s.
Her Patterns of Culture ( 1934) expresses cultural relativism in describing behaviors said to appear in every human society. (Her critics dismiss these patterns as a "tiny subset" of the whole.)
In 1936 she was appointed an associate professor.
Benedict was among the leading social anthropologists who were recruited by the U.S. Government for war-related research and consultation after U.S. entry into
World War IIWorld War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the world's nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. The war was fough.One of her lesser known works was a pamphlet she wrote then with Gene Weltfish , intended for American troops and stating the scientific case against racist beliefs. Despite the military concern that racially motivated behaviors interfered with military efficiency, approvals needed for its full distribution did not come.
Her war work included a major study, largely completed in 1944Events World War II January January 4 The Battle of Monte Cassino begins. January 5 Murder of Danish playwright Kaj Munck January 17 British forces, in Italy, cross the Garigliano River. January 20 The Royal Air Force drops 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin;, aimed at understanding, for instance, Japanese incomprehension of things Americans considered quite natural: these included American POWGeneva Convention Definition A prisoner of war (POW is a soldier who is imprisoned by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The laws apply from the moment a prisoner is captured until he is released or repatriated. One of the mains' wanting their families to know they were alive, and conquered Asian peoples' neither treating the Japanese as their liberators from Western colonialism, nor accepting their supposedly obviously just place in a hierarchy that had Japanese at the top. She played a major role in studying the role in society of the Emperor of JapanThe Emperor of Japan (, tenno is Japan's titular head of state and the head of the Japanese imperial family. From the dawn of history until the mid-twentieth century the role of the Emperor has alternated between that of a high-rank cleric with largely sy, and formulating the recommendation to President RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt Order 32nd President Term of Office March 4, 1933 April 12, 1945 Predecessor Herbert Hoover Successor Harry S. Truman Date of Birth January 30, 1882 Place of Birth Hyde Park, New York Date of Death April 12, 1945 Place of Death W that permitting continuation of the Emporeror's reign be part of the eventual surrender offer.
Benedict is best known for her book The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, the study of the society and culture of JapanJapan (, Nippon/Nihon literally "the origin of the sun") is a country in East Asia situated on a chain of islands east of the Asian continent on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean. The largest of these islands are, from north to south, Hokkaido , Honsh that she published in 1946Events January January 4 Theodore Schurch becomes the last person to be executed for offences committed under the Treachery Act of 1940 January 7 Allied recognize Austrian republic with 1937 borders the country is divided into four occupation zones Januar, incorporating results of her war-time research.
While some regard this book as "long since ... discredited since Benedict had no direct experience in Japan" and describe it as "considered shallow and overtly racist", it is still generally regarded as a classic whose value continues even despite the post-war changes in Japanese culture.