Ruth (Fulton) Benedict (1887 - 1948)

Biography

Ruth (Fulton) Benedict is Notable.

Ruth (Fulton) Benedict was a pioneering anthropologist and public intellectual. Her work in anthropology helped turn the page away from scientific racism and enhance the study of the variety of ways that humans respond to the demands of life -- each of which should be respected. She is known as the popularizer of the concept of "cultural relativism." Her tolerance of human diversity and her success as a woman in what was then a man's domain is immortalized in the American Anthropology Association's Ruth Benedict Prize as well as her induction into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

Ruth Fulton was born on June 5, 1887 in Manhattan, New York County, New York, United States, daughter of Frederick Samuel Fulton (1857–1889) and Bertrice Joanna Shattuck (1860–1953).^[1] Her father was a doctor and both her parents were Mayflower descendants. This set certain expectations for an upper class life style for the family, although her father's death when she was not yet two and her sister was less than a year old, created obstacles. ^[2]

The family moved to Buffalo, where Ruth's mother worked as a librarian. In 1900, Ruth (13) and her sister Margery (12) were in the household of Burtris [Beatrice] S Fulton in Election District 3 Buffalo city Ward 24, Erie, New York. Also living with them was Beatrice's sister, Hettie.^[3]

During her childhood, Ruth contracted measles, which left her partially deaf.^[2]. She also felt the stress created by her mother trying to earn a living while raising two daughters alone, and feared that her mother preferred Margery to herself.^[4]

Aunt Hettie is no longer living with the family in 1905. ^[5] Ruth and Margery would also move on that fall, as they went to Vassar with the financial help of strangers. There they both made Phi Betta Kappa. Ruth graduated with a degree in English in 1909.^[2][4] Ruth returned to Buffalo and worked with a charity organization that taught Italian and Polish immigrants how to become more "American."^[2] One wonders if that experience, which was evidently dissatisfying, influenced her later work on accepting the variety of cultures of the world.

Unhappy in Buffalo, Ruth moved to California, where she taught school. Back in New York state during the summer, she made the acquaintance of a brother of a fellow Vassar alumna, Stanley Rossiter Benedict. One author described Stanley as a “single-minded, persistent, and rigid man."^[2]. He persistently and single-mindedly pursued Ruth, who happily returned his affections. The couple married on June 18, 1914 in Chenango, New York.^[6] Stanley did not approve of Ruth working outside of the home, so she stayed in -- writing poetry and biographies, including one biography of feminist pioneer Mary Wollstonecraft. She published her poems under pseudonyms. However, she was unsuccessful in finding a publisher for her work on Wollstonecraft.^[2]

In 1920, Ruth (33) and Stanley (36) were living in Manhattan. ^[7] Strain was appearing in the marriage after they couple had tried, without success to have children.^[4] Ruth took some courses at the New School for Social Research, including a course on "Sex and Ethnology" taught by Elsie Clews Parsons. This course did much to spark Ruth's interest in anthropology. She shone in her coursework at the New School and her professors introduced Ruth to Franz Boas, founder of a progressive school of anthropology. In 1921, Ruth began graduate work in anthropology at Columbia, under Boas, graduating with her PhD in 1923.^[8]

Ruth became Boas's teaching assistant at Columbia, and it was in that capacity that she met Margaret Mead. The two became life-long friends, Mead later serving as Benedict's biographer and literary executor. It seems fairly well established that, at least for some of their lives, they were lovers.^[2][4][8] Ruth and Stanley had separated by 1931.^[8] Mead was the first of the two to publish, with Coming of Age in Samoa: A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilization in 1928.^[9] Benedict published her ground-break text, Patterns of Culture, in 1934.

Patterns of Culture has been published in 14 languages and is standard reading for anyone studying anthropology.^[8] The book developed a new approach to anthropological research. First, it was an interdisciplinary process, incorporating anthropology, psychology, sociology, and philosophy.^[10] This interdisciplinary approach yielded a new way of looking at culture that encouraged people to see each culture as a pattern of responses to the challenges all humans face. What is right and proper as a response in one culture would be frowned upon in another, and vice-versa. No one culture had a corner on what is right and proper.^[11] One writer said that the book "shakes our naive faith in our knowledge of what is 'normal' human behaviour, and shows how apt we are to accept our own institutions as direct expressions of human nature itself."^[12] The new view, emphasizing how being raised in a different culture results in different behaviors and de-emphasizing the impact of biology on human nature, was labelled "cultural relativism," by Benedict, who considered it a "doctrine of hope."^[10]

Before the publication of Patterns of Culture, and despite her PhD and the publication of her dissertation in 1923 and Tales of Cochiti Indians in 1931, Ruth held the title of Assistant Professor. With the fame that followed Patterns of Culture, she was finally made Associate Professor in 1936.^[8] (In today's academia, Associate Professor is attained, with tenure, within seven years of being hired as an Assistant Professor; in contrast, Benedict had to wait thirteen years, most likely due to the sexism of her time.) This sexism continued to affect Benedict's career. When Boas died in 1937, she was a favored candidate to take on the position of Chair of Columbia's anthropology department. However, the University's president installed Ralph Linton, a fierce critique of Benedict's work, instead.^[2][8] She did, however, function as the chair, doing much of the work. Vassar's biography of their famous alum styles her as "acting executive director" at this time.^[4]

During the Second World War, Benedict turned her attention to the pressing matters of the day, writing Race: Science and Politics (1940). While this was an academic study of race science, it was heralded as "more easily read [than other academic work on race], and will be more satisfactory to the general reader."^[13] [It is worth noting that this review of her book refers to Boas as "Dr. Franz Boas," but calls Benedict, "Mrs. Benedict," even though she had a PhD.] In Race: Science and Politics, Benedict "demonstrates quite beyond question that there are no scientific criteria whatsoever upon which to base" claims to racial superiority. This reviewer does castigate Benedict for proposing a "mild, pink socialistic New Dealism" as an answer to racism, but does recommend the book to anyone who might think that Whites or Aryans are a superior race.^[14] While the book was a timely contribution, it was an academic work and ran to 274 pages. To more adequately impact society, Benedict teamed up with a colleague, Gene Weltfish, to write a pamphlet called "The Races of Mankind," which likewise debunked claims to any biological "essence" for race or any hierarchy denoting superior and inferior races.^[8]

"The Races of Mankind" was to be distributed to schools, churches, and YMCAs.^[2] The pamphlet was also intended to be given to 55,000 United States military personnel, laying out with clarity that the fight against the Axis is a fight of the brotherhood of all humans against those who believe that we are not all one family, claiming superiority for themselves. Scientifically, Benedict and Weltfish argue, "all the peoples of the earth are a single family and have a common origin."^[8] However, Representative Andrew J. May of Kentucky, Chairman of the House Military Affairs Committee, blocked the pamphlet's distribution. His reasoning? The pamphlet argued that "tests show black men to be as capable of education as white and there are no inborn racial characteristics which mean inferiority of intelligence and spirit."^[15] In fact, the pamphlet included statistics showing that Black men in the North had outscored Southern White men on intelligent tests -- something the Representative of Kentucky found unacceptable.^[2] Benedict and Weltfish were simply demonstrating that it is environment and schooling, not biology, that determines characteristics like intelligence.

As the war was drawing to a close, Benedict was asked by the United States government to research, from a distance, the Japanese. (Field work was not a possibility.)^[8] The result was The Chrysanthemum and the Sword (1946). Again, the theme was that culture (not biology) determines character and that the patterns in any culture can be understood and should be valued on their own terms, rather than judged from without. The book provided advice for the occupation of Japan by the United States after VJ day. What appear to be contradictions (as expressed in the book's title) can be reconciled when the culture is understood from within.^[16]

With the publication of yet another major work, Benedict finally received a promotion to Full Professor, just a few months before her death.^[8]

Ruth died on September 17, 1948 in Manhattan, New York City, aged 61.^{[17] [18]}

Benedict was posthumously inducted into the Women's Hall of Fame in 2005. The following excerpt of her biography summarizes her achievements:

• Ruth Benedict was a pioneering anthropologist who became America’s leading specialist in the field, best known for her “patterns of culture” theory. Her book by that name revolutionized anthropological study, igniting the work of the culture and personality movement within anthropology. Her 1934 Patterns of Culture became an American classic and is still a highly regarded publication today.^[19]

Sources

1. ↑ "New York, New York City Births, 1846-1909," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2WM2-P51 : 11 February 2018), Ruth Fulton, 05 Jun 1887; citing Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, reference cn 492082 New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 1,322,222.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9} Painter, Nell Irvin. “Refuting Racial Science,” in ‘’The History of White People,’’ Audible Studios, 4 June 2013.
3. ↑ "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MSXJ-JNX : accessed 17 June 2021), Ruth Fulton in household of Burtris S Fulton, Election District 3 Buffalo city Ward 24, Erie, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 203, sheet 2A, family 26, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,241,032.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4} "Ruth Benedict '1909," Vassar Encyclopedia, https://vcencyclopedia.vassar.edu/distinguished-alumni/ruth-benedict/
5. ↑ "New York State Census, 1905," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MV1T-9LV : 8 March 2021), Ruth Fulton in household of Beatrice Fulton, Buffalo, Ward 24, E.D. 03, Erie, New York; citing p. 20, line 36, various county clerk offices, New York; FHL microfilm 825,701.
6. ↑ "New York, County Marriages, 1847-1848; 1908-1936," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FFRH-68D : 9 March 2021), Ruth Fulton in entry for Stanley R Benedict, 18 Jun 1914, Chenango, New York, United States; citing ref. ID , county clerk offices from various counties, New York; FHL microfilm 1,023,091.
7. ↑ "United States Census, 1920", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MJBH-FSV : 2 February 2021), Ruth F Benidict in entry for Stanly R Benidict, 1920.
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8 8.9} Wikipedia contributors, "Ruth Benedict"
   Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (accessed 3 February 2024)
9. ↑ Wikipedia contributors, "Margaret Mead" Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Mead. (accessed 3 February 2024)
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1} "PATTERNS OF CULTURE by Ruth Benedict, Introduction by Frank Boas, 291 pp., Boston, Houghton-Mifflin, $2.50 (Review)," The New York Times, 21 October 1934, BR24.
11. ↑ "Patterns of Culture," The Commercial Appeal, 17 March 1935, p. 47.
12. ↑ Suttie, Ian D. "Patterns of Culture," (letter to the editor) The Observer, 24 March 1935, p. 15.
13. ↑ Lexau, Ole H. "Science and Nonsense," The Atlanta Constitution, 29 September 1940, p. 54.
14. ↑ Edwin Ross qtd. in Gordon, Verlin D., "Racial Superiority," The Dayton Forum, 10 July 1942, p. 4.
15. ↑ Warren, Constance. "A Plea for Racial Truth: President of Sarah Lawrence Protests Suppressing Army Pamphlet," The New York Times, 14 March 1944, p. 18.
16. ↑ Carberry, Edward. "The Behavior of the Japanese," The Cincinnati Post, 7 December 1946, p. 7.
17. ↑ "New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2WPV-SLB : 3 June 2020), Ruth F. Benedict, 1948.
18. ↑ Find a Grave (has image)
    Find A Grave: Memorial #116380449 (accessed 31 January 2024)
    Memorial page for Dr. Ruth Fulton Benedict (5 Jun 1887-17 Sep 1948), citing Mount Hope Cemetery, Norwich, Chenango County, New York, USA; Maintained by Find a Grave.
19. ↑ "Ruth Fulton Benedict," National Women's Hall of Fame, National Women's Hall of Fame, 2005, Accessed 31 January 2024.

See Also

• Wikipedia contributors, "Ruth Benedict," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ruth_Benedict&oldid=1023316642 (accessed June 17, 2021). Wikidata: Item Q228822, en:Wikipedia