The Study of Culture At a Distance (Margaret Mead: The Study of Contemporary Western Culture, #1) (Margaret Mead: The Study of Contemporary Western Cultures, v. 1)

by Margaret Mead and Rhoda Metraux

Margaret Mead (Editor), Rhoda Metraux (Editor), and William Beeman (Foreword)

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The United States on the eve of the Second World War was still a society largely isolated from the world. Facing enemies with unfamiliar cultural traditions, the U.S. government turned to anthropologists for insight. The result was a research effort that continued long after the war, aimed, in the words of Margaret Mead, at analyzing the cultural regularities in the characters of individuals who are members of societies that are inaccessible to direct observation. In 1953, Margaret Mead and Rhoda Métraux produced The Study of Culture at a Distance, a compilation of research from this period. This remarkable work, long unavailable, presents a rich and complex methodology for the study of cultures through literature, film, informant interviews, focus groups, and projective techniques. The book also provides fascinating insights into such diverse cultures as China, Thailand, Italy, Syria, France, Germany, Russia, Romania, and Great Britain, and includes some highly original analysis such as that of the Soviet style of chess, a study of Jean Cocteau's classic film La Belle et la Bête, and the cultural interpretations of Rorschach tests administered to Chinese subjects.

  • ISBN10 1571812156
  • ISBN13 9781571812155
  • Publish Date 1 July 2000 (first published 1 December 1953)
  • Publish Status Active
  • Publish Country US
  • Imprint Berghahn Books, Incorporated