A uniquely revealing biography of two eminent twentieth century
American women. Close friends for much of their lives, Ruth
Benedict and Margaret Mead met at Barnard College in 1922, when
Mead was a student, Benedict a teacher. They became sexual partners
(though both married), and pioneered in the then male-dominated
discipline of anthropology. They championed racial and sexual
equality and cultural relativity despite the generally racist,
xenophobic, and homophobic tenor of their era. Mead's best-selling
"Coming of Age in Samoa" (1928) and "Sex and Temperament in Three
Primitive Societies" (1935), and Benedict's" Patterns of Culture
"(1934), " Race "(1940), ""and" The Chrysanthemum and the Sword
"(1946), were landmark studies that ensured the lasting prominence
and influence of their authors in the field of anthropology and
beyond.
With unprecedented access to the complete archives of the two
women--including hundreds of letters opened to scholars in
2001--Lois Banner examines the impact of their difficult childhoods
and the relationship between them in the context of their circle of
family, friends, husbands, lovers, and colleagues, as well as the
calamitous events of their time. She shows how Benedict
inadvertently exposed Mead to charges of professional incompetence,
discloses the serious errors New Zealand anthropologist Derek
Freeman made in his famed attack on Mead's research on Samoa, and
reveals what happened in New Guinea when Mead and colleagues
engaged in a ritual aimed at overturning all gender and sexual
boundaries.
In this illuminating and innovative work, Banner has given us the
most detailed, balanced, and informative portrait of Mead and
Benedict--individually and together--that we have had.
"From the Hardcover edition."
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