Ruth Benedict

Erik Homberger Erikson was born in Frankfurt, Germany. Erikson did not like going to school. He studied art and language but not his general core classes. He chose at that time not to go to college after graduating high school. He traveled Europe wanting to become an artist; it was a hard time traveling by foot and only having to sleep under bridges at night. After traveling around Europe for about a year, keeping a diary record of his travel experiences, enduring the harshness of having to live…

As western culture progresses some odd concepts such as morality begin to lack definition. The death of God and globalization have opened many possibilities for the understanding and evolution of morality, particularly whether it is culturally relative or of some universal absolute (Nietzsche). By determining the root of morality as belief, and understanding that beliefs are culturally defined this essay will prove that morality is relative to culture. It will further go on to disprove any…

Cultural beliefs and practices cannot and should not be interpreted without a reference to the cultural differences of people. Therefore, it is crucial to not judge one person’s actions by the standards of another culture. The judgment of right or wrong can only be done within the structure of that culture. Moreover, the universalization of ethical values of a particular culture is a complex and perhaps an impossible task to achieve. Through history we have witnessed that ethics and morality…

Ruth Benedict first seeks to demonstrate that perceptions of morality vary between cultures. Only providing one or two examples would evidently be insufficient so we are deluged with many. She dwells on this point, but it is easy enough to grant. However, after wearing us down with these examples, she unexpectedly jumps directly to her conclusion of moral relativity. Unless I am perceiving it incorrectly—which is entirely possible—this is the gist of her argument: cultures have differing views…

Are all Cultures Just as Valid? “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” To understand cultural relativism, we must first understand what culture is. The word “culture” originally meant care for growing living things, such as plants. A culture is a set of ideas and ways of acting that is developed by a group of people who interact with each other, and that influences how they live. Cultures are passed down from generation to generation through words, through expressive actions, and through things…

In today’s diverse and changing age there are many different forms of religion and how it is practiced. Their are the ancient methods that are studied by historians and psychologists, as well as many other studies. There cultures are often times Greek, Buddhism, Pagan, and early forms of Christianity. In the modern time period Christianity is what is seen throughout most of the country, but every religion has spread and gained slight popularity. The lesser known regions have their own special…

originally taught in the school of behavioral psychology focusing on the observable rather than the unobservable. He studied at the University of Wisconsin and later Columbia University. While at Columbia University he and an anthropologist known as Ruth Benedict who urged him to go do fieldwork interacting with the “Blackfoot Indian Tribe.” This changed his ideas of what psychology could and should do. He began to abandon his ideas of the behavioristic approach and instead focused on how…

wrong, look to your culture and it will tell you if it is acceptable or not because there is no right or wrong, no objective moral truths. If 51% of your culture believes abortion is right, it is. Just do what is socially acceptable in your culture. Ruth…

Lois W. Banner, the author of Elizabeth Cady Stanton: A Radical for Women’s Rights and ten other books including “Intertwined Lives: Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, and Their Circle” which received Israel Fishman Non-fiction award from Stonewall Book Awards and Lambda Literary Award for Biography. She wrote a biography of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a social activist, American suffragist, feminist, abolitionist, and one of the leading figure of the early women’s right movement. Elizabeth was born on…

Nancy Scheper-Hughes paints a vivid picture of the village folk living in “Ballybran”, once vital, now desolate and isolated by lack of economic opportunity and diminishing population growth. As a psychological anthropologist, she seeks deeper answers, attempting to identify psychological and cultural root causes of anomie and despair in the people living in rural Ireland. She explains multiple reasons for both their anomie and extremely high rates of mental illness which lie in shrinking…