Ruth Benedict made contributions to the fields of folklore, anthropology and sociology. Benedict was one of the first people to emphasize that our culture, as opposed to genetics, was a great influence on the formation of people’s personalities. In addition, Benedict had a theory that society was responsible for labeling what was considered “normal” and “abnormal” as opposed to biology. Ruth also expressed her concern about negative effects that the labels of “normal” and “abnormal” could have on people. Ruth Benedict was an advocate against anti-Semitism and race.
Ruth Benedict made contributions to the field of folklore and psychology. In psychology Ruth inspired extensive testing of hypotheses instead of the creation of new hypotheses. Ruth Benedict observed that culture is a learning process. I do agree with the anthropologist Ruth Benedict's belief that we are "creatures of our culture" and that our habits, beliefs, and impossibilities are shaped by our culture. Culture is socially constructed and our society shapes how we see the world, what is socially acceptable and what is okay to believe. Our society which creates our culture tells us what behaviors are acceptable, what type of people can succeed in certain roles and which people can not. We can break through the limits of our culture by exploring other ideas, investigating other ways how people view the world.
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Hi Communication Wrestler,
ReplyDeleteI thought your post was good and you provided a lot of good information about Benedict. I am a sociology major and I find the socialization process in our society very interesting. I agree with you that we are taught habits, beliefs, and culture is taught to us through the interaction with other people in our society. We learn how to act and how to think. I thin most people do not realize that we start socializing infants. At the moment I am teaching my seven month old son how to be a boy by dressing him in certain clothing, letting him be physically active, I even talk to him in a different way than I would talk to a baby girl. I use different words that describe characteristics of a boy such as handsome, strong, and brave. I think to socialization process is needed in society to keep it functioning.
Blue Moon
Communication Wrestler,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you. Ruth Benedict has shown us that culture has so much to do with what we ourselves give to our culture as well as what we learn from culture. It is a give and take, we learn from culture and in return we give back to other people in our cultures. Our society does in fact play a big role in what our culture is. A big part of culture is from learned roles that are what gives us our starting point. Breaking though the limits is exactly what you said exploring, investigating, sharing, and learning. It is on us to break through our own culture.
-Giggles