Patterns of Culture
An Enduring Classic
1st Edition
Published on 1. June 2018
320 pages
978-0-547-52392-7 (ISBN)
Description
An anthropologist compares three diverse societies in this groundbreaking, "unique and important" cultural study (
The New York Times).
A remarkable introduction to cultural studies, Patterns of Culture made history in exploring the role of culture in shaping our lives. In it, the renowned anthropologist Ruth Benedict offers an in-depth look at three societies-the Zuñi of the southwestern United States, the Kwakiutl of western Canada, and the Dobuans of Melanesia-and demonstrates the diversity of behaviors in them.
Benedict's groundbreaking study shows that a unique configuration of traits defines each human culture and she examines the relationship between culture and the individual. Featuring prefatory remarks by Franz Boas, Margaret Mead, and Louise Lamphere, who calls it "a foundational text in teaching us the value of diversity," this provocative work ultimately explores what it means to be human.
"That today the modern world is on such easy terms with the concept of culture... is in very great part due to this book." -Margaret Mead
A remarkable introduction to cultural studies, Patterns of Culture made history in exploring the role of culture in shaping our lives. In it, the renowned anthropologist Ruth Benedict offers an in-depth look at three societies-the Zuñi of the southwestern United States, the Kwakiutl of western Canada, and the Dobuans of Melanesia-and demonstrates the diversity of behaviors in them.
Benedict's groundbreaking study shows that a unique configuration of traits defines each human culture and she examines the relationship between culture and the individual. Featuring prefatory remarks by Franz Boas, Margaret Mead, and Louise Lamphere, who calls it "a foundational text in teaching us the value of diversity," this provocative work ultimately explores what it means to be human.
"That today the modern world is on such easy terms with the concept of culture... is in very great part due to this book." -Margaret Mead
All prices
More details
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Ruth Benedict(1887-1948) was one of the twentieth century's foremost anthropologists and helped to shape the discipline in the United States and around the world. Benedict was a student and later a colleague of Franz Boas at Columbia, where she taught from 1924. Margaret Mead was one of her students. Benedict's contributions to the field of cultural anthropology are often cited today.
Content
- Intro
- Title Page
- Contents
- Copyright
- Epigraph
- Foreword to the Mariner Books Edition
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- The Science of Custom
- The Diversity of Cultures
- The Integration of Culture
- The Pueblos of New Mexico
- Dobu
- The Northwest Coast of America
- The Nature of Society
- The Individual and the Pattern of Culture
- References
- Index
- About the Author
- Connect with HMH
- Footnotes
