Ruth Benedict in Czechoslovakia (summer 1948)

Date of publishing:

8.11.2015

The Český lid provides open access to all of its content under license
Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International.

Abstract:

The famous book of Ruth Benedict (hereafter RB) The Chrysanthemum and the Sword about the patterns of Japanese culture was for the fi rst time published in autumn of the year 1946 (two years ago, for the fi rst time also in translation to Czech). Had not RB died prematurely two years later, in September 1948, maybe
we could today fl ip through the pages of similar book on the patterns of Czech national character, viewed by the American cultural anthropologist, as Czechoslovakia was one of the several countries that were, after the World War II, investigated at a distance within the frame of the interdisciplinary project (Columbia University Research in Contemporary Cultures), initiated by RB, who for some time herself participated in it. Therefore in her archive there are some materials about Czechoslovakia. Besides, after a year of realization of the research, in summer 1948, RB got a chance to personal visit of Czechoslovakia, in the role of scientifi c consultant and lecturer at summer seminary of the UNESCO in Poděbrady, so that she could familiarize herself with the culture she had been researching at a distance. Based on the archival materials, the article tries at presenting detailed overview of her visit in Czechoslovakia and her participation in the international seminary.

Keywords

Ruth Benedict; UNESCO seminary in Poděbrady in 1948; method of the research of national character at a distance

Article Text

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