WRITING LIVES: RUTH BENEDICT’S JOURNEY FROM BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES TO ANTHROPOLOGY

Authors

Judith Schachter, Carneige Mellon UniversityFollow

Abstract

Ruth Benedict’s early biographical essays illuminate her anthropology and, especially, the humanism that guided her choice of subjects, her style of writing, and her goals in the profession. I examine the biographical essays, written in response to World War I, and then assess the contribution of The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, written at the end of World War II. With the speech she made to the American Anthropological Association in 1947, Benedict completed the circle, proposing a new anthropology that would include the emotions, ethics, reasoning, and experiences of individuals. A response to the behaviorist social science of the times, Benedict’s anthropology drew on the lessons she had learned as a biographer about the creativity that emerges under congenial conditions and the human capacity for reshaping conditions that are uncongenial.

Recommended Citation

Schachter, Judith (2009) "WRITING LIVES: RUTH BENEDICT’S JOURNEY FROM BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES TO ANTHROPOLOGY," Pacific Studies Journal: Vol. 32: No. 2, Article 10.
Available at: https://digitalcollections.byuh.edu/pacific-studies-journal/vol32/iss2/10