ANT201

Flagler College
Scott Swan
VA 5-LIMON

Ruth Benedict was a lady of her time who made a significant contribution to the

revolution in modern anthropology education and understanding. Between 1887 until 1948,

Benedict lived in New York City. She attended both Vassar College and the University of

Columbia throughout her years of education. She has a Ph.D. in anthropology in addition to

a bachelor's degree in the subject. Ruth worked as Franz Boas' assistant while a student at

the University of Columbia. Franz Boas is a well-known and innovative anthropologist.

Ruth experienced numerous life situations during her lifetime, all of which helped to

shape and have an impact on her decision to pursue a career in anthropology. She

experienced several difficulties in her early years, including the early death of her father and

a case of the measles at age five. She acquired partial deafness because of this transaction,

which finally made her feel out of date with other people. She developed a strong interest in

her academics as a result, which helped her do well in school. She turned to reading and

writing to fill the vacuum left by her inability to perform normally in the roles that belonged

to her appropriate sex. When Benedict was a student at the New School for Social Research

in 1909, anthropology was first exposed to her. Her inability to have children had an impact

on her compulsive study of anthropology. She became preoccupied with herself as well as

her "own individual world of effort and creation" as a result.

Benedict worked as a teacher at Westlake School for Girls and Orton School for Girls

during her career. She was unhappy with her profession throughout these years of teaching,

which made her aware of the little opportunities available to women at the time.

Additionally, she received contract teaching positions at Columbia University and Barnard

College. She stressed the fundamental premise that there was no set or obvious vision
ANT201
Flagler College
Scott Swan
shared by all of these tribes and cultures in her paper "The Vision in Plains Culture".

Benedict published two books, the major message of which was that people required

society to develop into who they are, just as civilizations needed people to develop into

what they are. The anthropologist Benedict once said, "The purpose of anthropology is to

make the world safe for human differences." What she was underlining, in my opinion, was

the notion that cultures and communities develop in unique ways and cannot follow a

discernible pattern that would separate a righteous from an unrighteous set of people. I

think she wanted people from all cultures to be recognized and valued for who they were.