Reading Benedict / Reading Mead : Feminism, Race, and Imperial Visions

by Janiewski, Dolores; Banner, Lois W.

• ISBN13: 9780801879753
• ISBN10: 0801879752
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-01-19
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr

Summary

As anthropologists, public intellectuals, and feminists, Ruth Benedict and Margaret Mead played remarkable roles in twentieth-century life and thought -- and far beyond the academy. Their work helped to popularize anthropology while introducing such terms as culture and racism into common parlance. At the same time, they contributed to wider debates about environmentalism, sexuality, the women's movement, and American foreign policy. In this collection, prominent international scholars come together to explore the lives, works, and legacies of two influential figures in American anthropology. The contributions reflect a wide range of topics and perspectives: Benedict and Mead's complicated personal and professional relationship; their activities as scholars and outspoken intellectuals; their efforts to promote feminism and undermine racism; their contributions to (and the challenges they posed to) the imperialist project; and the stories behind their best-known works, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword and Coming of Age in Samoa. Together, the essays provide a useful and provocative introduction to Benedict and Mead as well as to the ongoing debate about the legacy they left behind. Contributors: Lois Banner, University of Southern California; Margaret M. Caffrey, University of Memphis; Nanako Fukui, Kansai University; Angela Gilliam, Evergreen State College; Pauline Kent, Ryukoku University; C. Douglas Lummis, Okinawa International University; Nancy Lutkehaus, University of Southern California; Judith Schachter Modell, Carnegie Mellon University; Maureen Molloy, University of Auckland; Louise M. Newman, University of Florida; Dolores E. Janiewski, Victoria University of Wellington; Christopher Shannon, University of Notre Dame; Gerald Sullivan, University of Notre Dame; Sharon Tiffany, University of Wisconsin, Whitewater; Jean Walton, University of Rhode Island; Virginia Yans, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey

Author Biography

Dolores Janiewski is a senior lecturer in the department of history at Victoria University of Wellington and the author of Sisterhood Denied: Race, Gender and Class in a New South Community. Lois Banner is a professor of history and gender studies at the University of Southern California and the author of several books, including Intertwined Lives: Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, and Their Circle.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Being and Becoming Ruth Benedict and Margaret Mead
Dolores Janiewski and Lois W. Banner	vii
I BECOMING BENEDICT, BECOMING MEAD	1	(48)
1 Woven Lives, Raveled Texts: Benedict, Mead, and Representational Doubleness
Dolores Janiewski	3	(13)
2 "The Bo-Cu Plant": Ruth Benedict and Gender
Lois W. Banner	16	(17)
3 Margaret Mead, the Samoan Girl and the Flapper: Geographies of Selfhood in Coming of Age in Samoa
Maureen Molloy	33	(16)
II ERASURES AND INCLUSIONS	49	(50)
4 Coming of Age, but Not in Samoa: Reflections on Margaret Mead's Legacy for Western Liberal Feminism
Louise M. Newman	51	(19)
5 "A World Made Safe for Differences": Ruth Benedict's The Chrysanthemum and the Sword
Christopher Shannon	70	(16)
6 White Maternity, Rape Dreams, and the Sexual Exile in A Rap on Race
Jean Walton	86	(13)
III IMPERIAL VISIONS	99	(54)
7 Of Feys and Culture Planners: Margaret Mead and Purposive Activity as Value
Gerald Sullivan	101	(14)
8 The Lady of the Chrysanthemum: Ruth Benedict and the Origins of The Chrysanthemum and the Sword
Nanako Fukui	115	(11)
9 Ruth Benedict's Obituary for Japanese Culture
Douglas Lummis	126	(15)
10 The Parable of Manus: Utopian Change, American Influence, and the Worth of Women
Margaret M. Caffrey	141	(12)
IV ECHOES AND REVERBERATIONS	153	(38)
11 Imagining the South Seas: Margaret Mead's Coming of Age in Samoa and the Sexual Politics of Paradise
Sharon Tiffany	155	(11)
12 Symbolic Subordination and the Representation of Power in "Margaret Mead and Samoa"
Angela Gilliam	166	(13)
13 Misconceived Configurations of Ruth Benedict
Pauline Kent	179	(12)
V RE-THINKING BENEDICT AND MEAD	191	(58)
14 Margaret Mead: Anthropology's Liminal Figure
Nancy Lutkehaus	193	(12)
15 "It is besides a pleasant English word"-Ruth Benedict's Concept of Patterns Revisited
Judith Modell	205	(24)
16 On the Political Anatomy of Mead-bashing, or Re-thinking Margaret Mead
Virginia Yans	229	(20)
Notes	249	(38)
Contributors	287	(4)
Index	291