When was Ruth Benedict’s obituary for Japan published?
The original version of “Ruth Benedict’s Obituary for Japan” was serialized in the journal Shiso no Kagaku (Science of Thought) in 1980, and then appeared as part two of my book Uchi Naru Gaikoku (The Abroad Within) (Jiji Tsushinsha, 1981).
How did Benedict deal with the Japanese language of guilt?
As op. cit. Yanagita pointed out, Benedict achieved this transference by ignoring the rich vocabulary the Japanese language has for expressing guilt. (21) Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, eds., The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge, New York, Melbourne: Cambridge U. Press, 1983); see Lummis, A New Look at The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, Ch. 4.
What is Ruth Benedict’s approach to work?
The organization of this large project expressed Ruth Benedict’s special approach to work—her concern with the well-being of each individual student and colleague, her attentiveness to individual styles of field work and different interests in theory, her willingness to spend precious hours carefully editing a student’s fumbling English.
How did Ruth Benedict influence Ruth Landes?
One student who felt especially fond of Ruth Benedict was Ruth Landes. Letters that Landes sent to Benedict state that she was enthralled by the way in which Benedict taught her classes and with the way that she forced the students to think in an unconventional way.
What is the contribution of Ruth Benedict?
Ruth Benedict was a pioneering anthropologist who became America's leading specialist in the field, best known for her “patterns of culture” theory. Her book by that name revolutionized anthropological study, igniting the work of the culture and personality movement within anthropology.
What was Ruth Benedict theory?
Her unique contribution to the study of anthropology was the theory that culture is "personality writ large." Benedict's strong belief in the applied study of cultural relativism—the theory that a culture or group of people can be studied only against the backdrop of itself— was the motivating force in Patterns of ...
Did Ruth Benedict go to Japan?
When the cultural anthropologist Ruth Benedict was asked to write a report on Japan in the spring of 1945 for the American Office of War Information, she was working under difficult conditions. She had never been to Japan and had no chance of going there during wartime.
When did Ruth Benedict say the purpose of anthropology is to make the world safe for human differences?
b. 1887, New York; d. 1948, New York “The purpose of anthropology,” she stated, “is to make the world safe for human differences” (Haviland, Cultural Anthropology, 133). Her emphasis on socialization implicitly critiqued theories of nature and inborn temperament.
What did Ruth Benedict focus on?
During 1943–45 Benedict was a special adviser to the Office of War Information on dealing with the peoples of occupied territories and enemy lands. Her long-standing interest in Japanese culture bore fruit in The Chrysanthemum and the Sword (1946).
How did Ruth Benedict define culture?
'" As Benedict wrote in that book, "A culture, like an individual, is a more or less consistent pattern of thought and action" (46). Each culture, she held, chooses from "the great arc of human potentialities" only a few characteristics, which become the leading personality traits of the persons living in that culture.
What evidence does Benedict provide to support the claim that moral standards can differ from culture to culture?
Benedict's argument is: (1) If what is accepted by society, based on shared beliefs, as normal behavior varies from culture to culture, then morality would vary from culture to culture. (2) Each culture, based on shared beliefs, decides what is considered acceptable and normal behavior within their society.
How does Ruth Benedict define morality?
Ruth Benedict's theory of moral relativism is based in the common practices and beliefs of cultures. She describes morality as something that is wholly individual to cultures, and which cannot be criticized by members of other cultures.
What character trait does Benedict demonstrate?
Benedict's character, as Gregory points out, must be discovered from his Rule, and the impression given there is of a wise and mature sanctity, authoritative but fatherly, and firm but loving.
What is the meaning of the purpose of anthropology is to make the world safe for human differences?
American anthropologist Ruth Benedict believed that “the purpose of anthropology is to make the world safe for human differences.” Each individual can experience the world in his or her own way, and learning about these experiences enables us humans to connect with each other and grow.
What is the main purpose of anthropology?
The goal of anthropology is to pursue a holistic understanding of what it means to be human by understanding the relationship between human biology, language, and culture.
What is the importance of anthropology?
Anthropology helps you to learn about different cultures and understand what all rituals do the people of a particular culture follow. It also helps you to find the similarities and differences between the two cultures. , and the history of humans are some of the important concepts you get to learn in Anthropology.
What is Ruth Benedict's work?
Ruth Benedict’s work falls into several categories, over-lapping in time and emphasis. There are intensive, detailed, scholarly cooperative studies of written sources on North American Indian ethnology. There is field work, emphasizing folklore: among the Serrano 1922; the Zuñni 1924, 1925, 1935; the Cochiti 1925, 193la; and the Pima 1926. Ruth Benedict led two anthropological training groups: one among the Mescalero Apache 1931b; and the other among the Blackfoot 1939. She edited the Journal of American Folklore (1925–1939); she originated and elaborated upon the idea of configuration in culture, work that culminated in Patterns of Culture 1934a; in the decade 1935–1945 she was actively committed to causes to which she felt anthropology was relevant; and, finally, she participated, from 1943 to 1948, in the development of techniques whereby the methods of anthropology could be applied to the study of modern cultures, combining an intensive use of sophisticated informants and the analysis of cultural products.
What is the bibliography of Ruth Benedict?
Bibliography. My book Ruth Benedict: Patterns of a Life (Philadelphia, 1983) contains a bibliography including all of Benedict's published writings, archival sources, and works of significance to her anthropology, as well as secondary sources relevant to her life and works.
What is Zuni theocracy?
The significance of Zuni theocracy and ceremonialism is conveyed in her Patterns of Culture (1934). Through the 1930s, Benedict taught at Columbia, edited the Journal of American Folk Lore, and began to compare myths employed in primitive societies with the dreams of utopia current in complex societies.
Why does Benedict start the pattern?
Benedict begins Patterns by pointing out that because the possibilities for a viable way of life are almost limitless, “ selection ” becomes a “ prime necessity ” of human history (p. 23). A group of people creates, borrows, and selects materials that it “ integrates ” into a consistent pattern, a cultural totality.
Why does each culture misunderstand the other?
Each culture misunderstands the other because apparently similar traits take on different significances in each. As her study of Japan illustrates, Benedict believed that anthropology, by helping people to see their culture in a new light, could lead them to change customs that were no longer useful or humane.
When was the Chrysanthemum and the Sword published?
The Chrysanthemum and the Sword was published in 1946 ; Benedict died two years later. According to Benedict, religion stems from human perception of a "wondrous power, a voltage with which the universe is believed to be charged" ("Religion," General Anthropology, p. 630).
Why are myths considered a "compensatory"?
For Benedict, myths are "compensatory," a way of making up for the constraints and the failures of everyday life. Myths are also "wishes" for a better social order and for a "redesigned universe.". The former she called "tales" and the latter, because of their religious content, "myths.".
What is Ruth Benedict's most influential book?
Department of Sociology. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Ruth F. Benedict's The Chrysanthemum and the Sword (1946) remains perhaps. the most influential English-language book on contemporary Japanese soci.
Was the Chrysanthemum and the Sword a ur text?
nance among the Japanese themselves to the extent that The Chrysanthemum. and the Sword became something of an ur-text of the post-World War II. Japanese discourse on the Japanese and on Japanese culture {Nihonjinron or. Nihonbunkarori). Ruth F. Benedict's The Chrysanthemum and the Sword (1946) remains perhaps.
The Pentagon called on Ruth Benedict to write this book to deconstruct the Japanese mentality and prepare for the occupation of the country
The Chrysanthemum and the Sword is an ambivalent text and its publication has been discussed extensively. In order to understand it, some context is required: it is 1944 and the Pacific War is raging.
Never touch the emperor
Ruth Benedict sets out her main argument: that all human beings respond to diverse stimuli through the prism of culture. Society regulates ways of thinking and acting, while culture is the moral philosophy that forges values.
What happened to the Japanese Christians in 1637?
Following a failed Christian uprising in 1637 – 38, all Japanese Christians were forced to renounce their religion or be executed. From 1639, under the sakoku ('closed country') policy all Portuguese were forbidden from entering the country. The Portuguese weren't the only Europeans to establish trade in Japan.
Who established trade in Japan?
The Portuguese weren't the only Europeans to establish trade in Japan. The first Dutch ship arrived in 1600, and in 1609 the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, or VOC) established a trading factory in Hirado.
What was the Dutch monogram for Japanese porcelain?
The decoration on Japanese blue-and-white export porcelain of the 17th century closely followed Chinese models, with some pieces also incorporating the initials VOC, the monogram of the Dutch East India Company .
What is the fascination of the arrival of Europeans?
The fascination aroused by the arrival of Europeans is revealed in many aspects of late 16th- and early 17th-century Japanese visual culture, most dramatically in screens that depict the arrival of a Portuguese vessel into a Japanese port.
What was the main purpose of Japan's trade?
The principal purpose of trade with Japan was to obtain gold, silver and copper, of which the country had valuable deposits . However, the luxury goods produced by Japan's craftsmen also had immediate appeal and soon became a significant part of the goods that were transported back to Europe.
What happened to the Portuguese in 1543?
In 1543 a Portuguese ship was blown off course by a typhoon, shipwrecking the sailors on the island of Tanegashima, off the south-west tip of Japan. Eager to trade with Japan, the Portuguese soon established more formal traffic through the port of Nagasaki, and in 1549 the Jesuit priest Francis Xavier ...
Where did the Dutch stay in the Shogun?
While in the Shogun capital, the Dutch were lodged at the Nagasaki-ya. T he famous image by Katsushika Hokusai (1760 – 1849) reveals the excitement their presence created among the residents of the city. Places of Entertainment in the Eastern capital, Katsushika Hokusai, 1802, Edo, Japan.