Patterns of culture

Benedict, Ruth

Bibliographische Daten

Monographie

Strukturtyp:: Monographie

Werks-URN (URL):: https://digi.evifa.de/viewer/resolver?urn=urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-d-6472736

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-d-6472736

Persistenter Identifier:: BV045453616

Titel:: Patterns of culture

Autor:: Benedict, Ruth

Erscheinungsort:: New York

Verlag:: The New American Library

Erscheinungsjahr:: 1953

Signatur:: A 139 (SA)

Sammlung:: Allgemeiner Bestand

Wissensgebiet:: Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie > Soziale Organisation und Praxis

Kapitel

Strukturtyp:: Kapitel

Titel:: III. The Integration of Culture

Sammlung:: Allgemeiner Bestand

III The Integration of Culture THE diversity of cultures can be endlessly documented. A field of human behaviour may be ignored in some so- cieties until it barely exists; it may even be in some cases unimagined. Or it may almost monopolize the whole or- ganized behaviour of the society, and the most alien situ- ations be manipulated only in its terms. Traits having no intrinsic relation one with the other, and historically inde- pendent, merge and become inextricable, providing the occasion for behaviour that has no counterpart in regions that do not make these identifications. It is a corollary of this that standards, no matter in what aspect of behaviour, range in different cultures from the positive to the negative pole. We might suppose that in the matter of taking life all peoples would agree in condemnation. On the contrary, in a matter of homicide, it may be held that one is blame- less if diplomatic relations have been severed between neighbouring countries, or that one kills by custom his first two children, or that a husband has right of life and death over his wife, or that it is the duty of the child to kill his parents before they are old. It may be that those are killed who steal a fowl, or who cut their upper teeth first, or who are born on a Wednesday. Among some peoples a person suffers torments at having caused an acci- dental death; among others it is a matter of no conse- quence. Suicide also may be a light matter, the recourse of anyone who has suffered some slight rebuff, an act that occurs constantly in a tribe. It may be the highest and noblest act a wise man can perform. The very tale of it, on the other hand, may be a matter for incredulous mirth, and the act itself impossible to conceive as a human possi- bility. Or it may be a crime punishable by law, or re- garded as a sin against the gods. 41

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