1942 Anthropology and Cultural Change PDF

Anthropology and Cultural Change Author(s): RUTH BENEDICT Source: The American Scholar , SPRING 1942, Vol. 11, No. 2 (SPRING 1942), pp. 243-248 Published by: The Phi Beta Kappa Society Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41203587 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, research...

Anthropology and Cultural Change Author(s): RUTH BENEDICT Source: The American Scholar , SPRING 1942, Vol. 11, No. 2 (SPRING 1942), pp. 243-248 Published by: The Phi Beta Kappa Society Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41203587 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms The Phi Beta Kappa Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The American Scholar This content downloaded from 216.249.57.75 on Wed, 01 Jan 2025 17:37:23 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  In the Workshop Hi*iiViSNlSiS^Si4"iVi*ii44*i"i"i^'i»i"»444>iSVni1i*ii'M>i'iS>inu'i4S*ilSi^Hhi"ini^Wf^i'hilS^ Anthropology and Cultur RUTH BENEDICT the earliest days of and the study ethics, he is happiest when he can gather of anthropology, no one has his material from a people as ever spotted an anthropologist by theas possible, down all little influenced problems he discussed. Hetheir hashistory, shared by our own civilization. all his problems with other No doubt there are some anthro- sciences and these have varied from décade pologists to whom this preoccupa- to decade according to what questionstion with the faraway is a grateful were uppermost in science or in so- escape from what is called "reality." ciety. But you can always know an But anthropology has had a singu- anthropologist by his subject matter.larly consistent history, whatever the Whether he is an archeologist, a lin-problem uppermost at the time, of guist, a physical anthropologist or using a this esoteric material to answer questions about ourselves and our student of religion or folklore, he uses material from peoples all over theown civilization. Anthropologists have world. Anthropology's most distinc- always thought it was most unlikely tive mark is that it chooses to studythat our civilization could be under- strange peoples. It is definitelystood as a single special creation weighted against the one particular apart from all others. They have historical episode in which our civ-always thought that the better our ilization figures. As an archeologist knowledge of other episodes, the bet- the anthropologist is digging up re-ter our understanding of the one in mains of tribes and nations that have which we figure. not contributed to our civilization.Since anthropology first became a systematic study (about the middle As a linguist he is studying the vo- of the last century), the problems on cabulary and grammar of some little horde in Australia or some island in which people have most wanted in- Oceania. As a physical anthropologist formation have changed. In Eng- his studies include paleolithic skele-land early anthropology flourished tons and living Hottentots. As a cul- at a time when the deep-seated theo- tural anthropologist, studying liveli-logical dogma of a Divine Plan was hood, the family, the state, religion being looked at more and more 243 This content downloaded from 216.249.57.75 on Wed, 01 Jan 2025 17:37:23 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  The American Scholar askance. Darwin's Origin of Species some of these tribes were populous had been published in 1859 and theand wealthy and had kings and tem- problem of the early anthropologistsples, and others were savage food was to square their data on preliterate gatherers. This picture was at the op- human history with this new scheme, posite pole from that of the earlier Evolution. The business of the an- students whose theories had been thropologist was to arrange on one based on the assumption that each ascending ladder all the culturesgroup of of tribes had its own or- the world until they culminatedderly in evolution, hermetically sealed Western Civilization; whether it against was outside influences. European hairiness or monogamy or The study of diffusion, as this study private property or monotheism, ofall the distribution of cultural traits cultures and races since the begin- is called, had two chief positive re- ning had been in travail to produce sults. In the first place it enabled this finest flower. They were allthe onanthropologist to reconstruct his- lower rungs of the ladder up which tory in eras that had left no written we had climbed to the top. The task records. The language, the imple- of the anthropologist was to arrange ments and the myths of Madagascar societies in a single upward pro- natives were those of the Malay peo- gression to demonstrate the Natural ples one third of the way around the Plan. It provided a world scheme globe; as therefore it could be shown that there had been migrations or gratifying in its way as the older theo- logical one which had proved that contact in an era from which no rec- our customs, our ethics, our religionords were available. The history of were final truths sanctioned and re- borrowing and of the movements of vealed by a divine being. peoples stood out clearly on continent This cosmic scheme was discred- after continent. In the second place, ited chiefly by anthropologists' the in- study of diffusion showed how creasing study of the distribution of often mankind borrows and how cultural traits. Those cultural ele- seldom he invents. It proved that ments which the evolutionists had re- human progress had been overwhelm- garded as indices of evolutionaryingly due to the sharing of inven- stages, instead of occurring at a cer-tions, that every race was indebted to tain level of cultural development, other races and that every tribe had were actually locally distributed.in common with a hundred others Even a pigmy tribe if it lived in thethe things it most dearly valued. It neighborhood of tribes with compli-stressed the great cultural common- cated cultures adopted many of thewealths of the world. latter's ways of life. Millions of criss- The work of physical anthropolo- cross borrowings had occurred, andgists rounded out and enriched this the resultant picture was that of con-reconstruction of world history, for stant cross-fertilization even thoughtheir work made it possible to answer 244 This content downloaded from 216.249.57.75 on Wed, 01 Jan 2025 17:37:23 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  Anthropology and Cultural Change questions about race and its relation tage over a mixed race? The answe to civilization. One of the important is simple: every civilized group eve questions is whether certain races known has been racially mixed. Th have always been the leaders in the "pure" races are small isolated groups development of civilization and cer- in inaccessible spots in the Arcti tain others always the incapable. The or in jungle and not one of them i first professional anthropologist, The- a leader in the progress of civiliza odor Waitz, investigated this sub- tion. High civilization does not occu ject in 1859 with special reference to without considerable diversity of pop the Negro and on the basis of all theulation and contacts of peoples an facts concluded that there was no in such situations ancestry is alway evidence of innate racial disability.mixed. Nor could the white race claim that During this period when anthro- it had led the march of civilization pologists were primarily engaged i down the ages. Much work has beenstudying diffusion and invention and done since the days of Waitz but it the history of civilization, they were has all reaffirmed his conclusions. actually gathering a great deal o Every race has its nations of complexinformation about measurements of civilization and its tribes and each bodily form and the presence or ab- race has also its groups which are sence of the lance or linked totem or backward- and live in the simplest bride price. They were accumulating possible fashion. Peoples of every detailed descriptions of the way life race have forged ahead under certainwas lived in different cultures. They conditions and built great cities and were recording how people acted and set up great states, and rude people felt and thought. They were getting of barbarian ancestry have again anddata on human behavior from Es- again shown themselves abundantly kimo sea-mammal hunters, from able to adopt the highest extant civ- South African agriculturalists, from ilization and to contribute to its de- Siberian reindeer herders, from In- velopment. The Nordics were oncedian buffalo hunters. These descrip- tions of other societies raised other just such a rude people about the time of the fall of the Roman Em- questions than those about diffusion pire. Their race did not disqualify and the growth of civilization. They them from becoming leaders in civ- raised questions about "human na- ture." In some societies adolescence ilization, but neither is that leader- ship an innate consequence of their was a period of rebellion, of stress race. and strain; in some societies it was Another question which anthropol-a period of calm, a time when one ogy can answer categorically especiallyisenjoyed oneself. In some closely associated with this question societies men were violent and quar- of the superiority of one relsome; race overin some, no voice was raised others: has a pure race any advan- above its wonted key and no man was 245 This content downloaded from 216.249.57.75 on Wed, 01 Jan 2025 17:37:23 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  The American Scholar known in all their memory to have life were also still important whether struck another. The list of contrasts one was studying human behavior in was endless, and the conclusion could a tribe up the Amazon or in a city like not be avoided: a great deal of whatNew York/ Whether a child's mother had ordinarily been regarded as duebrushed it aside in favor of an older to "human nature" was, instead, cul-brother might still be an important turally determined. Institutions, emo-factor in his life. But culture could tions and attitudes varied with cul- make any specific inheritance or any ture, that body of conventions andepisode in an individual's life either a matter of pride or of humiliation. values which is socially transmitted in every society and which distin-When some cultures made trance or sexual aberrancy prideful, such be- guishes that society from all others haviors no longer had the same symp- which belong to a different tradition. Many things which had been accepted toms and conflicts which they have as psychological and sociologicalwhen they are studied in our culture. "laws" so long as psychologists and When some cultures make accumu- sociologists confined their studies lation to of property shameful, those our own culture in our own lifetimes who try to accumulate no longer have were, it seemed, special ways of be-the kind of behavior we associate having or of organizing economic orwith the rich. When some cultures political life which had grown up inmake it institutionally impossible for our particular culture. one man to compel another against Because these cultural contrasts his will unless one or both of them act in opposition to all tribal sanc- were so great, it led to a different orientation of studies of human be- tions, people who try to push people havior and of society even in our ownaround do not have the characteristic culture. In accounting for behaviorwhich power gives in our culture. it had been customary to take two Much anthropological study of factors into account: heredity, andthese problems stresses merely cul- the idiosyncratic incidents of individ-tural relativity; it emphasizes the ual life. To these now had to be fact that behavior which occurs in added the social order in which an our society does not occur in many individual had been reared and ac- other societies and that behavior cording to which he conducted his which is bizarre in our society is the life. This added factor did not mini-rule in many others. Some students mize the other two; it supplemented have stopped at this point in their them. Heredity was still important investigations - and they have used not the mythology of a "racial" in-their anthropology to reinforce mod- heritance, but the health and energy ern skepticism about human values. and constitution which comes from a From the fact that morality in one man's biological parents and fore-culture is the immorality of other bears. Idiosyncratic facts of a man'scultures, that the irreligion of one so- 246 This content downloaded from 216.249.57.75 on Wed, 01 Jan 2025 17:37:23 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  Anthropology and Cultural Change ciety is the religion of another, they It is a matter of phrasing the anthro- have concluded only that morality pological question positively. and religion are illusions and that Anthropology has unique advan- all things are relative. They have tages for such a study. Sociology and pointed out the well-proven fact that psychology depend upon data from polygamy in some societies builds a one epoch and region of the world - stable and cohesive family, and they contemporary Western Civilization. have concluded that the value we They cannot provide from their own material sufficient instances against place on monogamy is an illusion. which to check hypotheses. History They have shown that religious prac- is limited to what is preserved in doc- tices are often techniques for stealing uments; historians cannot go and see or killing, and that religious devotion the peoples they study. They know, is often a reason for inquisitions; for instance, that only one sixth of they have said therefore that religion is a whited sepulchre. the men of Athens were freeborn cit- izens and that they lived in compar- Such skepticism comes from stop- ative leisure on the produce of slaves ping short at elementary questions. and non-citizens. These students are really asking But historical rec- ords tell only of the freeborn, and only: will monogamy automatically make stable and companionable themar-historian cannot study class re- lations in Athens. He cannot go be- riages, or will religion automatically concern itself with ideal values? Cer- yond a record of a sale of slaves to find tainly they will not. But such factsout what the attitudes of master and only clear the ground and make it man were, or what kind of life the possible to separate those things slaves lived among themselves. Were which are culturally relative from the slaves loyal to their masters or those that are not. The fundamental were they sullenly subservient? Were they given responsibility or were they problem in the study of society - like the fundamental problem in engi-kept in their place? These social con- ditions are not described in the Greek neering or in physiology - is still to learn the conditions which do bring texts of that day. about a designated outcome. We need Anthropologists, however, are lucky. desperately to know the positive con-They can watch all that happens in ditions under which, for instance, so- any society they visit. They can cial conflict and disintegration occur,hear any confidences. They can know and it is possible to study such condi-intimately the leaders and the dere- tions in society after society with thelicts. They can document the gap same scientific detachment with between the way people say they ought to behave in any situation and which one studies cultural relativity. We need to know what conditions are the way they do behave. Social prob- necessary for social cohesion and sta- lems and problems of individual be- bility, and these too can be studied.havior are spread before them and 247 This content downloaded from 216.249.57.75 on Wed, 01 Jan 2025 17:37:23 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  The American Scholar can be studied, as it were, in theconditions they have regarded them- flesh, in all their varieties. selves as not free. As we face the Such study of human behavior un- future in America, with all the social der differing cultural conditions is changes we know that it must in- known as the study of culture andclude, we need to steady ourselves personality. Every social order bringswith as much knowledge of human certain pressures to bear upon its experience in these matters as we can members and requires of them cer-find. Any knowledge that makes us tain things; it eliminates or mini- more objective about cultural change, mizes pressures and obligations that any knowledge that gives us certain other cultures use to the hilt. These points of the compass to steer by may pressures and requirements begin atbe of inestimable value. The material birth and it is therefore necessary to the anthropologist works with pro- study how they are built into the vides a great opportunity for clearer individual in babyhood and in child-understanding of our own urgent so- hood and continued - or controverted cial problems in peace or war, and - in adolescence and in adulthood. there have been few periods in history The way in which babies are brought when clarity was more needed. up makes them children who behave in a particular fashion and have a par- ticular set of motives. Most of these methods work well or badly according to whether or not they are congruent with the cultural demands upon adults. Or, in positive terms, ways of bringing up children which are con- gruent with the cultural values of a society are one of the prime condi- tions which make that society func- tion well and vigorously. The study of culture and personal- ity makes it possible to understand our own society in comparison with many others and to answer many questions we need to know in our own embattled democracy. It can tell us under what conditions democracies have worked and under what condi- tions they have proved socially dis- astrous. It can tell us under what con- ditions men have regarded them- selves as free men and under what 248 This content downloaded from 216.249.57.75 on Wed, 01 Jan 2025 17:37:23 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms