- Born
- 5 June 1887New York City, USA
- Died
- 17 September 1948New York City, USA · aged 61
Ruth Benedict
The anthropologist who wrote “Patterns of Culture” argued that what counts as normal depends on culture – and loved Margaret Mead.
Ruth Benedict grew up in New York State; her father died when she was a baby, and an illness left her partially deaf. She studied English literature at Vassar College, worked as a teacher, married and wrote poetry under a pseudonym.
In her thirties she discovered anthropology and studied with Franz Boas at Columbia University, where she later taught. Her book “Patterns of Culture” (1934) became one of the most widely read works of anthropology. In it she argued that each culture develops its own patterns of what is considered normal or deviant – including in sexuality. Homosexuality, she wrote, is considered an abnormality in some societies and highly valued in others.
Her marriage failed, and she had relationships with women, above all with her student Margaret Mead, with whom she remained connected for life, and later with the chemist Natalie Raymond and the psychiatrist Ruth Valentine, with whom she lived.
During the Second World War she studied Japanese culture for the US government; her book “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword” (1946) was hugely influential. She died in New York in 1948, aged 61.