Ruth Landes
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| - | + | '''Ruth Landes''' (October 8, 1908 in [[New York City]] – February 11, 1991 in [[Hamilton, Ontario]], Canada) was an American [[cultural anthropologist]] best known for studies on [[Brazil]]ian [[candomblé]] cults and her published study on the topic, ''City of Women'' (1947). Landes is recognized by some as a pioneer in the study of race and gender relations. | |
| - | '''''Patterns of Culture''''' ([[1934]]) is a book by [[Ruth Benedict]]. It was translated into fourteen languages and was published in many editions as standard reading for [[anthropology]] courses in American universities for years. | + | ==Bibliography== |
| - | + | '''Selected books''' | |
| - | The essential idea in ''Patterns of Culture'' is, according to the foreword by [[Margaret Mead]], "her view of human cultures as 'personality writ large.'" Each culture, Benedict explains, 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. These traits comprise an interdependent constellation of aesthetics and values in each culture which together add up to a unique [[gestalt]]. For example she described the emphasis on ''restraint'' in [[Pueblo]] cultures of the American southwest, and the emphasis on ''[[abandon]]'' in the [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] cultures of the [[Great Plains]]. She used the [[Friedrich Nietzsche|Nietzschean]] opposites of [[Apollonian and Dionysian|"Apollonian" and "Dionysian"]] as the stimulus for her thought about these Native American cultures. She describes how in ancient Greece, the worshipers of [[Apollo]] emphasized order and calm in their celebrations. In contrast, the worshipers of [[Dionysus]], the god of [[wine]], emphasized wildness, abandon, letting go. And so it was among Native Americans. She described in detail the contrasts between rituals, beliefs, personal preferences amongst people of diverse cultures to show how each culture had a "personality" that was encouraged in each individual. | + | * ''Ojibwa Sociology'' (1937) |
| - | + | * ''The Ojibwa Woman'' (1938) {{ISBN|0-8032-7969-8}} | |
| - | Other anthropologists of the [[Psychological anthropology#Configurationalist approach|''culture and personality'' school]] also developed these ideas—notably Margaret Mead in her ''[[Coming of Age in Samoa]]'' (published before "Patterns of Culture") and ''Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies'' (published just after Benedict's book came out). Benedict was a senior student of Franz Boas when Mead began to study with them, and they had extensive and reciprocal influence on each other's work. Abram Kardiner was also affected by these ideas, and in time the concept of "modal personality" was born: the cluster of traits most commonly thought to be observed in people of any given culture. | + | * ''The City of Women'' (1947) {{ISBN|0-8263-1556-9}} |
| - | + | * ''Culture in American Education: Anthropological Approaches to Minority and Dominant Groups in the Schools'' (1965) | |
| - | Benedict, in ''Patterns of Culture,'' expresses her belief in [[cultural relativism]]. She desired to show that each culture has its own moral imperatives that can be understood only if one studies that culture as a whole. It was wrong, she felt, to disparage the customs or values of a culture different from one's own. Those customs had a meaning to the people who lived them which should not be dismissed or trivialized. We should not try to evaluate people by our standards alone. [[Morality]], she argued, was ''relative'' to the values of the culture in which one operated. | + | * ''Latin Americans of the Southwest'' (1965) |
| - | + | * ''A cidade das mulheres'' (1967) (Portuguese translation of The City of Women.) | |
| - | As she described the [[Kwakiutl]]s of the [[Pacific Northwest|Northwest Coast]] (based on the fieldwork of her mentor Franz Boas), the Pueblos of [[New Mexico]] (among whom she had direct experience), the nations of the Great Plains, and the [[Dobu Island|Dobu]] culture of [[New Guinea]] (regarding whom she relied upon Mead and [[Reo Fortune]]'s fieldwork), she gave evidence that their values, even where they may seem strange, are intelligible in terms of their own coherent cultural systems and should be understood and respected. | + | * ''The Mystic Lake Sioux: Sociology of the Mdewakantonwan Sioux'' (1968) |
| - | + | * ''Ojibwa Religion and the Midewiwin'' (1968) | |
| - | Critics have objected to the degree of abstraction and generalization inherent in the "culture and personality" approach. Some have argued that particular patterns she found may only be a part or a subset of the whole cultures. For example, [[David Friend Aberle]] writes that the Pueblo people may be calm, gentle, and much given to ritual when in one mood or set of circumstances, but can be suspicious, retaliatory, and warlike in other circumstances. Nevertheless, Benedict's elegant descriptions are vivid, readable, and easy to relate to. New generations of students continue to find her arguments persuasive even after the culture and personality school has been abandoned by anthropologists generally. | + | * ''The Prairie Potawatomi: Tradition and Ritual in the Twentieth Century'' (1970) |
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| - | In 1936 she was appointed an [[Professor|associate professor]] at [[Columbia University]]. However, by then Dr. Benedict had already assisted in the training and guidance of several Columbia students of anthropology including [[Margaret Mead]] and [[Ruth Landes]]. | + | |
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| - | Benedict was among the leading [[Cultural anthropology|cultural anthropologists]] who were recruited by the [[Federal government of the United States|U.S. Government]] for war-related research and consultation after [[United States|U.S.]] entry into [[World War II]]. | + | |
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| - | One of her lesser known works was a pamphlet "The Races of Mankind" which she wrote with her colleague at the Columbia University Department of Anthropology, [[Gene Weltfish]]. This pamphlet was intended for American troops and set forth, in simple language with cartoon illustrations, the scientific case against racist beliefs. | + | |
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Ruth Landes (October 8, 1908 in New York City – February 11, 1991 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada) was an American cultural anthropologist best known for studies on Brazilian candomblé cults and her published study on the topic, City of Women (1947). Landes is recognized by some as a pioneer in the study of race and gender relations.
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Bibliography
Selected books
- Ojibwa Sociology (1937)
- The Ojibwa Woman (1938) Template:ISBN
- The City of Women (1947) Template:ISBN
- Culture in American Education: Anthropological Approaches to Minority and Dominant Groups in the Schools (1965)
- Latin Americans of the Southwest (1965)
- A cidade das mulheres (1967) (Portuguese translation of The City of Women.)
- The Mystic Lake Sioux: Sociology of the Mdewakantonwan Sioux (1968)
- Ojibwa Religion and the Midewiwin (1968)
- The Prairie Potawatomi: Tradition and Ritual in the Twentieth Century (1970)
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