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Culture and personality (Benedict, Mead, Linton,

Kardiner and Cora –du Bois).

Culture and Personality

The study of culture and personality seeks to understand the growth and development of
personal or social identity as it relates to the surrounding social environment. In other
words, through the examination of individual personalities broad or correlations and
generelization be made about the specific nature of those members. This has led to the
examinations of national character, modal personality types and configurations of
personality.
The field of culture and personality draws on psychology and anthropology. Born out of
Sigmund Freud's psycho-analysis, anthropologists began searching for common aspects that
would characterize differing peoples by their cultures. In an attempt to avoid racist,
hierarchical culture models, a new breed of anthropologists sought to describe culture
based on the individuals within a society and the similarities that are shared.
The pioneers in this school of thought were students of Boas and Kroeber. They
include Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead, Linton, and Cora-Dubois. These scholars, during
1920s, became extremely critical of. the theories put forth earlier in anthropological
thought. Instead, they provided the culture personalities theories as an alternative.
Basic Premises
1. The cultural practices of people are reflections of their personality.
2. Differences in personalities of peoples are because of differences in cultures.
3. Culture influences to a great extent the personality traits of the people.
4. The primary aim of culture personality school is to examine the interrelationship between
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individual members.
Configurational Approach - Ruth Benedict & Margaret Mead
1. A culture according to Benedict is analogous to an individual in that if is more or less a
consistent pattern of thought and action.
2. Hence, any analysis of culture requires a psychological approach.
3. When traits and complexes become related to each other in functional roles, a cultural
pattern is formed.
4. Many cultural patterns integrate themselves into a functional whole they form a special
design of a whole culture. This special design of whole culture is called configuration of
culture.
5. The integration of culture is on the basis of tendency seen in all aspects of culture (traits,
complexes, etc). This tendency is called by Benedict "special genius" that brings about
integration.
6. There are two types of geniuses found in human society. Apollonian and Dionysian. In
Apollonian pattern, one will see the existence of peace, discipline and kindness. The
Dionysian culture is characterized by a great deal of changes and aggressiveness.
7. These two geniuses mold, the personality of the members of their group. The Apollonian
personality compels members of the group to behave in one form and the Dionysian
personality in the other. This Will lead to the formation of special cultural characteristics for
the group concerned. In this way personality influences culture.

Criticism
Morris Opler criticized this configurationalist approach stating that there are not only two
bases of cultural integration but many. Thus, this approach is very narrow.
Margaret Mead, along with Ruth Benedict has been the pioneer of culture-personality
school of thought. Heavily influenced by Franz “Boas, she along with Ruth Benedict began
with the configurational approach. Her important works like "Coming of Age in Samoa"
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this fact. However, her later works reveal that she slowly moved away from the
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configurationalist approach which analyses the impact of personality on culture. Instead,
Mead, through her work Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies" explains the
impact of culture on the personality formation. She opines that it is culture which shapes the
personality of the group.

The three tribes of New Guinea, .Mundugumor, Tshambuli and Arapesh, though live in the
same geographical area represent different personality structures. This is because their
cultures are different. The different cultures have different socialization processes. This is
the reason why interactions between people differ along with their behavior.

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