Malinowski, Rivers, Benedict
and Others
Essays on Culture and
Personality
Edited by George W. Stocking, Jr.
History of Anthropology (VOLUME FOUR)
Richard Handler, Series Editor
“[Malinowski, Rivers, Benedict
and Others] . . . tells of the brilliant American thinkers
Edward Sapir, Ruth Benedict, and Margaret Mead, and how the latter
two moved into the center stage of history as planners/thinkers
for American society during and after WW II. Vignettes reveal
Malinowski, John Layard, Abram Kardiner, Melville Herskovits,
Gregory Bateson, and Jane Belo. . . . This book deserves a far
wider audience than its obvious target. . . . It should be held
in every community college and university library, in every town
and city.”
—Choice
History of Anthropology is a series of annual volumes, inaugurated in
1983, each of which treats a theme of major importance in both
the history and current practice of anthropological inquiry.
Drawing its title from a poem of W. H. Auden’s, the present volume, Malinowski, Rivers, Benedict and Others focuses on the
emergence of anthropological interest in “culture and personality”
during the 1920s and 1930s. It also explores the historical,
cultural, literary, and biological background of major figures
associated with the movement, including Bronislaw Malinowski,
Edward Sapir, Abram Kardiner, Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead, and
Gregory Bateson.
Born in the aftermath of World War I, flowering in the years
before and after World War II, severely attacked in the 1950s
and 1960s, “culture and personality” was subsequently
reborn as “psychological anthropology.” Whether this
foreshadows the emergence of a major anthropological subdiscipline
(equivalent to cultural, social, biological, or linguistic anthropology)
from the current welter of “adjectival” anthropologies
remain to be seen. In the meantime, the essays collected in the
volume may encourage a rethinking of the historical roots of
many issues of current concern.
 George W. Stocking, Jr. (1928–2013) was the Stein-Freiler Distinguished Service Professor
Emeritus in the Department of Anthropology and the Committee
on the Conceptual Foundations of Science at the University of
Chicago. He was the author of many books, including Victorian
Anthropology; After Tylor: British Social
Anthropology, 1888–1951; and The
Ethnographer’s Magic, and was the founder and long-time
editor of the History of Anthropology series published
by the University of Wisconsin Press. He was awarded the
Huxley Medal of the Royal Anthropological Institute and the Franz
Boas Award for Exemplary Service by the American Anthropological
Association. His most recent book with the University of Wisconsin
Press is Glimpses into My Own Black Box:
An Exercise in Self-Deconstruction.
Media & bookseller inquiries regarding review copies, events, and interviews can be directed to the publicity department at publicity@uwpress.wisc.edu or (608) 263-0734. (If you want to examine a book for possible course use, please see our Course Books page. If you want to examine a book for possible rights licensing, please see Rights & Permissions.)
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November 1988
LC: 86-40061
GN
270 pp. 6 x 9, 18 illus.
Included in this volume are the contributions
of Jeremy MacClancy, William C. Manson, William Jackson, Richard
Handler, Regna Darnell, Virginia Yans-McLaughlin, James A. Boon,
and the editor.
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