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DAILY
CLASS NOTES
Anthropology

Lecture - 48
Anthropological Theories -14
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Anthropological Theories -14

Topics covered from the Syllabus:
 Anthropological theories : Culture and personality (Benedict, Mead, Linton, Kardiner, and Cora-du Bois).

Theory -06 : CULTURE PERSONALITY SCHOOL

RUTH BENEDICT :
 National Character Study: The Chrysanthemum and the Sword (1946) - Japanese national traits needed
to be understood during the Second World War, and some American anthropologists assisted by analyzing
them through Japanese films and literature on the country's history and culture. Ruth Benedict made a
significant contribution in developing and then applying the “content analysis method” to study the culture at
a distance.
 When anthropologists could not freely travel to conduct fieldwork among the indigenous societies
during World War II, Benedict devised this content analysis method. She obtained information for her
monograph from historical records, Japanese-themed literature, and conversations with Japanese
immigrants. She carefully examined all of the data, analyzed it, and came to a number of important
conclusions regarding Japanese society.
 She describes Japanese culture as having two methods of child rearing.
 In Japan, children are given complete affection, independence, care, and cooperation. But once the
child reaches adolescence, severe discipline is put in place. He or she is expected to act in a way that
will be agreeable and appealing to older people. It is not anticipated that she or he will stray from
cultural norms as a teenager.
 She makes a comparison between Japanese child rearing practices and the chrysanthemum, the
country's national flower, and the sword. Chrysanthemums represent a child's socialization during
their formative years.
 When their children are young, Japanese parents do everything in their power to help them develop
into beautiful chrysanthemum flowers. When youngsters reach their full potential and become
adolescents, they must deal with a difficult existence. They are left by their parents to live independent
lives and earn a living. Children consequently become hostile and violent.
 A sword always hangs on their neck, because they do not seek cooperation from the elders.

B) MARGARET MEAD : Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November

15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist. She earned her
bachelor's degree at Barnard College of Columbia University and her M.A.
and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia.
 Mead served as president of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science in 1975. She was a student, a lifelong
friend, and a collaborator of Ruth Benedict. She studies ‘IMPACT
OF CULTURE ON PERSONALITY FORMATION’.
 Books /Work:
1. Growing up in New Guinea (1930).
2. Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935)
3. Coming of Age in Samoa (1949)
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 Views:
1. Coming of Age in Samoa: She compares Samoans with teenage females in America in her book,
Coming of Age in Samoa, which is based on nine months of fieldwork. Her research revealed that
these stressors were mostly experienced by American teenagers, whereas Samoan adolescents
experienced a comparatively smooth transition to sexual maturity.

 She argues in her book about Samoas that kids learn early on that they can get their way if they
behave nicely or are submissive and silent. For both males and girls, it is not emphasized to have
arrogance, flippancy, or boldness. The adults are supposed to work hard, and the children are
expected to wake up early, be respectful and happy, play with kids of their own sex, etc.
 According to her fieldwork observation, little girls move about together and have antagonistic and
avoidance relationships with boys. However, as they grow up boys and girls begin to interact
during parties and fishing expeditions. As long as a boy and a girl are not committing incest, it is
considered natural and adults pay little attention to such relationships.

 She concluded that cultural conditioning, not biological changes associated with adolescence,
makes it stressful or not.
 Criticisms notwithstanding, subsequent studies have lent support to her basic theory that
childhood upbringing influences the FORMATION OF ADULT PERSONALITY
2. Growing up in New Guinea (1930): The enculturation methods used by the Manus of New Guinea to
raise their children from infancy through childhood and from childhood to maturity are the subject of
this study.
 The book actually discusses how culture can help children at various stages of life, including
infancy, youth, and adulthood, to develop their personalities.
3. Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935): In this study like Benedict, Mead
compared three different cultures, namely ARAPESH, MUNDUGUMOR, AND TCHAMBULI, to
test the range of variation of cultural patterns.
 The study was to understand why societies living in the same area differ in their character,
personality, and temperament and why within the same society, the temperaments of male and
females differ.
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A. ARAPESH: From her study she found that in Arapesh, cultural environments are such that
both males and females have a submissive temperament. In their culture, such personality
traits are the matter of great praise and all members in this society follow these cultural
traits with great enthusiasm.
B. MUNDUGUMOR: The cultural environment of Mundugumor is such that every member
is found to be in struggle, conflict, and competition with each other. These cultural
practices have a direct bearing on the personality formation of members of Mundugumor.
Both males and females are aggressive.
 In this society, the personality traits of its members are reflected by such characters
as suspiciousness, competition, quarrelsomeness, ego, jealousy, and unkindness.
C. TCHAMBULI: Males develop a meek disposition according to Tchambuli cultural
customs, whereas females develop an aggressive personality. It is a matrilineal society
where women hold most of the power. The personality qualities of the Tchambuli mirror
the culture's submissive male behavior and aggressive female behavior.
C) RALPH LINTON : Ralph Linton (27 February 1893 – 24 December 1953) was
an American anthropologist of the mid-20th century. Ralph Linton began his
career as an archaeologist, but later turned to cultural anthropology.
 His ethnographic fieldwork took him to Polynesia and Madagascar and on
archaeological expeditions in Latin America and the United states. He
worked on: Impact of Culture on Personality and Vice-versa.
 Books/Works:
1. The Cultural Background of Personality(1945)
2. The Study of Man(1936)
 Views:
1. Concept of Culture: Ralph Linton (1945) stated, ‘ The culture of a society is the way of life of its
members; the collection of ideas and habits which they learn, share and transmit from generation to
generation'.
 Types of Culture: Ralph Linton (1945) noted three types of culture:
1. Real culture (actual behavior)
2. Ideal culture (Philosophical and traditional culture)
3. Culture construct (what is written on cultural elements etc.)
 Real culture (actual behavior): Real culture is the sum total of the behavior of the
members of the society, which is learned and shared in particular situations. A real
culture pattern represents a limited range of behavior within which the response of the
members of a society to a particular situation will normally be formed. Thus various
individuals can behave differently but still in accordance with a real culture pattern
 Ideal culture: Ideal culture pattern is formed by philosophical traditions. In this,
some traits of culture are regarded as ideals.
 Culture Construct: Linton stated that there is a difference between the way of life of
people and what we study and write about. Both are different dimensions of culture.
The former is reality and the latter is our understanding of the same. If the former is
called culture the latter can be called CULTURE CONSTRUCT.
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2. Basic Personality Structure Approach: This approach was developed jointly by Abram Kardiner
and Ralph Linton in response to the configurational approach. It looks at individual members within
a society and then compares the traits of these members in order to achieve a basic personality for each
culture.
 PERSONALITY: Ralph Linton (1945) defines personality as the individual’s mental qualities
the sum total of his rational faculties, perceptions, ideas, habits and conditional emotional
responses.
3. ROLE AND STATUS: ROLE refers to the rules for behavior appropriate to a given status or social
position. He prescribed some criteria for the characteristics as a person needs to become eligible for a
particular social role. He identified two kinds of status, vis., ascribed and achieved status

 ASCRIBED STATUS : Ascribed statuses are “those which are assigned to individuals
without reference to their innate differences or abilities”. The universally used criteria for
ascription of status are age, sex, kinship, and race. Birth of an individual in a particular social
category such as class and caste also become criteria for ascription of statuses in several but not
all societies.
 ACHIEVED STATUS : Achieved statuses are those that are “left open to be filled through
competition and individual effort”. These are acquired over an individual’s lifetime.
Occupation and education are thus called achieved statuses. Marital statuses of a wife or a
husband are also achieved statuses.

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