Considered a pioneer in her time, Ruth Fulton Benedict was an American anthropologist who helped to popularize anthropology while introducing such terms as culture and racism into common place language. As an advocate against discriminatory attitudes, Benedict advocated for tolerance and individuality within social norms and expectations and sought to determine that each culture has its own moral imperatives. Considered her most famous written work, Patterns of Culture, Benedict explores the differences between rituals, beliefs, and personal preferences and how within that culture, personality within the individual exists. While Benedict advocated for tolerance within individual choice and society, she also recognized the struggle within society to fully embrace such choices as she remained silent about her personal life. An outspoken voice against racial inequality and discrimination, Benedict determined a variety of aspects within the cultures of that which she studied bringing forth awareness and helping to create peace.
Benedict (1934) wrote in her book Patterns of Culture, “From the moment of his birth the custom into which he was born shape his experience and behavior” (p.3). Benedict was born on June 5, 1887 in New York City to Frederick S. Fulton and Beatrice Shattuck. Following the death of her father at her early age of two years old, Benedict and her sister became isolated as their mother remained in grief of the loss of her husband. Isolated and confined to a fantasy world within her mind, Benedict developed depression that would prove to be a struggle much of her life. Lacking nurturing from her mother and isolated from a childhood of normalcy, Benedict found comfort in her imagination and what would later be h...
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...ct’s work as an advocate against discriminatory attitudes paved the way for tolerance and individuality within social norms and expectations, as she also sought to determine that each culture has its own moral imperatives. Benedict’s life is a shining example of the ability to keep individuality of ones self paramount within the greater society while fulfilling both internal desires for success and creating peace and understanding in the external world.
Works Cited
Benedict, R. F. (1946). The Chrysanthemum and the Sword . Cleveland: Meridian Books.
Benedict, R. F. (1934). Patterns of Culture. USA: Eighteenth Printing.
Ruth Benedict. (2009, January 12). New World Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:18, April 27, 2011 from http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Ruth_Benedict?oldid=900340.
Mead, M. (1959). An Anthropologist at Work. USA: Atherton Press.
Mrs. Barbara Allen Barrett, age 39, was previously married to Michael John Reed who she had two offspring with, Catherine Reed, 16, who attends Givenchy Academy and Todd Michael Reed, 18, who attends Stanford. Barbara and Michael were married for 9 years before they decided to get a divorce. She met John Walker Barrett 2 years after her separation at a functions for a garden.
She was harassed at school by malicious and prejudiced boys, and felt isolated by her limited English language abilities. Her discomfort with puberty was exacerbated by an encounter with a perverted American exhibitionist in a car. She dealt with these issues later in life by becoming a psychologist and analyzing her family's myriad mental problem” (Spark Notes Editors, 2002).
It is common for human beings, as a race, to fall into the comforts of routine – living each day similar to days before and days to come. Unfortunately, it is often too late before one even realizes that they have fallen into this mundane way of living in which each day is completed rather than lived, as explained by David Foster Wallace in “This Is Water”. This commencement speech warned graduating students of the dangers of submitting to our “default settings” of unconscious decisions and beliefs (Wallace 234). However, this dangerous way of living is no new disability of today’s human race. Socrates warned the people of his time: “A life unaware is a life not worth living” and who is to say he wasn’t completely right? A topic of long debate also includes the kind of influence that consciously-controlled thoughts can have on the physical body. A year after Wallace’s speech, neurobiologist Helen Pilcher, published “The New Witch Doctor: How Belief Can Kill”, which explains the influence of the mind and individual beliefs on the quality of one’s life. Together, both authors illustrate how detrimental a life lived unaware of one’s own thoughts and beliefs can be on the body and spirit. And though it is easy to live by
In spite of the fear which propels him, there is finally hope for Ignatius. Waddling fearfully into the world, he can now learn to accept his common fate with the rest of humanity--his own humanness and inherent vulnerability in a world over which he has no control. In her frustration and resignation, Ignatius' little mother, an unusual Earth Mother at best, once sadly and plaintively tells her son, "You learnt everything, Ignatius, except how to be a human being" (375). Therein lies a lesson for us all.
I chose to start this paper by quoting an entire poem of Anne Sexton's. Why? Because no one told the story of Anne Sexton's life as often or as well as Anne Sexton herself. Over and over she wrote, recounted, and recast her struggles with madness, her love affairs, her joys and griefs in parenting, and her religious quests. For example, "Rowing" touches upon the need for Anne to tell stories about herself, her longing for connection with others, her mental problems, and her searching for God - one could not ask for a better introduction to the world of Anne Sexton.
Margaret Cochran Corbin (1751-c.1800) fought alongside her husband in the American Revolutionary War and was the first woman to receive pension from the United States government as a disabled soldier. She was born Nov. 12, 1751 near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., orphaned at the age of five and was raised by relatives. When she was twenty-one she married John Corbin. John joined the Continental Army when the American Revolution started four years later and Margaret accompanied her husband. Wives of the soldiers often cooked for the men, washed their laundry and nursed wounded soldiers. They also watched the men do their drills and, no doubt, learned those drills, too.
The lives we lead and the type of character we possess are said to be individual decisions. Yet from early stages in our life, our character is shaped by the values, customs and mindsets of those who surround us. The characteristics of this environment affect the way we think and behave ultimately shaping us into a product of the environment we are raised in. Lily Bart, the protagonist in Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth, is an exceedingly beautiful bachelorette who grows up accustomed to living a life of luxury amongst New York City’s upper-class in the 20th century. When her family goes bankrupt, Lily is left searching for security and stability, both of which, she is taught can be only be attained through a wealthy marriage. Although, Lily is ashamed of her society’s tendencies, she is afraid that the values taught in her upbringing shaped her into “an organism so helpless outside of its narrow range” (Wharton 423). For Lily, it comes down to a choice between two antagonistic forces: the life she desires with a happiness, freedom and love and the life she was cut out to live with wealth, prestige and power. Although, Lily’s upbringing conditioned her to desire wealth and prestige, Lily’s more significant desires happiness, freedom and love ultimately allow her to break free.
Her family life is depicted with contradictions of order and chaos, love and animosity, conventionality and avant-garde. Although the underlying story of her father’s dark secret was troubling, it lends itself to a better understanding of the family dynamics and what was normal for her family. The author doesn’t seem to suggest that her father’s behavior was acceptable or even tolerable. However, the ending of this excerpt leaves the reader with an undeniable sense that the author felt a connection to her father even if it wasn’t one that was desirable. This is best understood with her reaction to his suicide when she states, “But his absence resonated retroactively, echoing back through all the time I knew him. Maybe it was the converse of the way amputees feel pain in a missing limb.” (pg. 399)
Smith suggests that Anne Hutchinson rally for change clashes with an intolerant leadership promoting rigid adherence to authority. In New England, Hutchinson was from an elite neighborhood. She had expertise in healing and childbirth. As such, she was an important resource among the female population and afforded her some degree of power. Hutchinson migrated to the new world. Her story is about the intolerance of women.
I hid my face as I sat desperately alone in the back of the crowded church and stared through blurry eyes at the stained glass windows. Tears of fear and anguish soaked my red cheeks. Attempting to listen to the hollow words spoken with heartfelt emotion, I glanced at his picture, and my eyes became fixed on his beloved dog. Sudden flashes of sacred memories overcame me. Memories of soccer, his unforgettable smile, and our frequent exchange of playful insults, set my mind spinning. I longed only to hear his delighted voice once more. I sat for what seemed like hours in that lonely yet overcrowded church; my tears still flowed, and I still remembered.
To Scobie the manifestation of even a human love is, by his own admission, merely a habit, a series of patterns, another trait which, like his pity and responsibility remains empty of positive content. Many if not most of his actions arise out of conformity to a pattern of behaviour: “life always repeated the same: there was always, sooner or later, bad news that had to be broken, comforting lies to be uttered, pink gins to be consumed to keep misery away.” (191) Many of his religious practices were also merely routine: “It was the first Saturday of the month and he always went to Confession on that day.... the awful languor of routine fell on his spirits.”(152-53) It is not surprising, therefore, to discover the same languor of the empty, external habit seeping into a human
Burckhardt discusses the changes in identity from “some general category” to “the subjective side at the same time asserted itself with corresponding emphasis; man became a spiritual individual” . Banishment and solidarity also played a role in individualism because the separation from the state and church lead to cosmopolitanism; men of the world. Burckhardt discusses the development of free personality in northern Europe. This is where Burckhardt adds in how writers and poets showcase the accomplishments of individuals in the subsection Glory. In the next subsection Ridicule and Wit. Burckhardt captures the satire/wit of an individual along with the intellectual dexterity. Southern however believes that the authority of logic is what happened to bring out change in personalities and attitudes. Southern also adds with the idea that with solitude the individual has the right mindset to actually become an individual in northern France. He argues, once the church has been separated from secular life it made religious life a spiritually mature and sophisticated matter. This gives off the idea that the church is the reason behind individualistic attitudes; with a new way of thought and feelings. This is not to be confused with Burckhardt’s way of thinking about the church because
aspects of his life heavily influenced his inspiring works, including his family life, his obsession with spiritualism, his upbringing and early career in Edinburg, and his distorted perspective of society
In the article “The Strange and Curious Tale of The Last True Hermit”, the author Michael Finkel portrays Christopher Knight as a seemingly harmless yet misconceived man that was forcibly disconnected from amenity and thrusted back into the world he once walked away from. To do so, Finkel uses dialogue, definition, and emotion to aid in defending his claim.
Societies vary greatly throughout the world, as do human experiences. What it means to be a social being in Japan, may not equate with what it means to be a social being in Central Africa. Throughout this essay I will argue that, while society may vary, the desire to be social exists in all cultures throughout history. The world may have always had its recluses, those who attempt to live a solitary life, but even these people can be seen as a reflection of their previous culture and society, fulfilling a role and remaining tied to their pre-existing relationships, using and being used by society like any other social being (Stone 2010: 6). Throughout this essay I will use the example of the Japanese and Central African social being to show how experiences of society change and are shaped by one's location. Further I will explain what it is to be a social being, and how society shapes our experiences, whether we remain within it or not, through the experiences of various hermits and recluses throughout history.