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Ruth Benedict
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[One] concept that fascinated Benedict is giri (1946: Ch.8). Benedict maintains that giri is distinguishable in two ways: first, giri to one’s name, second, giri to society. The former is a kind of self-respect, but one deeply embedded in the notion of hierarchy. It does not necessarily mean the act of pursuing the highest possible achievement in terms of one’s social success. Rather, it is more closely related to the notion of “taking one’s proper place” within a group that is already set up in a hierarchical order. The second meaning is a public duty that one has to pay.
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Benedict enrolled in the doctoral program at Columbia in 1921. There she became the student of Franz Boas, then America's most prominent anthropologist. She earned her Ph.D. two years later with a dissertation entitled The Concept of the Guardian Spirit in North America.
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Upon his return, Don and Ruth returned to his parent’s farm in the Winchester area. Lacking necessary seed facilities in the area, Don started processing his own seed. He was soon processing seed for all the farmers in the area as well. The business was thriving, so Don and his father, Rollo Benedict, built a seed facility in Cottonwood. Not long afterward, they decided to move Benedict’s Seed from Cottonwood to Lewiston. In 1956, they decided to sell the farm and move to Lewiston, where they maintained ownership of Benedict’s Seed until 1990.
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His ideological biases seem particularly pronounced in two claims: Benedict was an able advocate and a framer of the US national interest in the US occupation policy over Japan. As well, she was a Western-centered, if not racist, anthropologist typical of her time.
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Don and Ruth married on Dec. 27, 1939. Plans to continue teaching were interrupted for Don with his call to duty for World War II. He served two years in the military, mostly in England, participating in the Normandy invasion and returning home with a Purple Heart.
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Aficionados of Benedict will appreciate Youngs frustration with the many misconceptions surrounding Benedict and admire her use of the materials to make her point. For the uninitiated... it may be profitable to read one of the biographies, as well, to understand some of the nuanced criticisms. Nevertheless, Young does make the case clearly for yet another book on Benedict.
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Ruth Benedict