Patterns of culture

by Ruth Benedict

Paperback, 2005

Publication

Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 2005.

Call number

SS / Bened

Barcode

BK-07205

ISBN

9780618619559

Original publication date

1934

CSS Library Notes

Kwakiutl - Canada : Dobuans - Melanesia :

Physical description

xxiii, 290 p.; 21 cm

Description

A study of the civilizations of the Zuni Indians, the natives of Dobu, and the Kwakiutl Indians.

Language

Original language

English

User reviews

LibraryThing member LJT
A contributing work in the history of anthropological thought. Ruth Benedict, as was Margaret Mead, was a proponent of the "culture and personality" school of anthropological thinking. Here, she compared the Dobus of New Guinea, the Pueblos of New Mexico, Kwakiutls of the Northwest Coast and the
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Great Plains nations and argued that the values of each are intelligible in terms of its own coherent cultural system and that the individual should be seen within the context of his or her own culture. Basically, it is a treatise advocating cultural relativism.

The book is well written and worth a read if you are interested in the subject and even if you do not find her arguments persuasive 70 years of anthropological research later.
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Rating

½ (62 ratings; 3.6)
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