“Ruth Benedict originally Ruth Fulton: (1887-1948) U.S anthropologist. Born in New York City, she received her PhD under Franz Boas at Columbia University in 1923 and taught at Columbia from 1930 until her death. In Patterns of Culture (1934), her most famous work, she emphasized how small a part of the range of human behavior is elaborated or emphasized in any one society. She described how these forms of behavior are integrated into patterns or configurations, and she supported cultural relativism, or the judging of cultural phenomena in the context of the culture in which they occur. In The Chrysanthemum and the Sword (1946), she applied her methods to Japanese culture. Her theories had a profound influence on cultural anthropology.”
Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
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