The Making of Psychological Anthropology

676 Pages·1980·8.9 MB·English

by  George Dearborn Spindler

The Making of
Psychological
Anthropology
T h.i.s One
I IIIII
The Making of
edited by George D. Spindler
Contributions by
John and Beatrice Whiting
Victor Barnouw
Margaret Mead
Francis L. K. Hsu
Louise Spindler
Anthony F. C. Wallace
George DeVos
Weston La Barre
John]. Honigmann
Melford E. Spiro
A cc~lik be herr atenaal
Psychological
Anthropology
George Devereux
Theodore Schwartz
Robert B. Edgerton
Erika Bourguignon
Theodore D. Graves
Nancy B. Graves
Victor Turner
Douglass Price-Williams
Michael Cole
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
BERKELEY LOS ANGELES LONDON
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This volume is dedicated to
A. Irving ("Pete") Hallowell,
whose influence on the making
of psychological anthropology
is pervasive and profound, and to
Maude Hallowell,
without whom this influence
would have been much diminished.
University of California Press. Berkeley and Los Angeles. California
University of California Press, lid., London, England
Copyright © 1978 by The Regents of the University of California
First Paperback Printing 1980
[SBN 0-520·039~1·2
library of Congress Catalog Card Numlxt: 76-24597
Primed in the United States of America
2} 4 ~67890
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atenaal
Contents
Preface jx
The Editor xiij
General Introduction 1
PART l
Introduction to Part I: George Spindler 7
The Authors: John and Beatrice Whiting 39
CHAPTER 1
This Chapter 40
A Strategy for Psychocultural Research 41
CHAPIER 2 The Author- Victor Barnouw 62
This Chapter 63
An Interpretation of Wisconsin Ojibwa
Culture and Personality; A Review 64
The Author: Margaret Mead 87
CHAPTER 3
This Chapter 88
The Evocation of Psychologically Relevant
Responses in Ethnological Field Work 89
CHAPTER 4 The Author- Francis 1 K H Sl1 140
This Chapter 141
Passage to Understanding 142
The Author: Louise Spindler 174
CHAPTER 5
This Chapter 175
Researching the Psychology of Culture Change
and Urbanization 176
Comment by G. D. Spindler 197
CHAPTER 6 The Author: Anthony F. C. Wallace 201
This Chapter 202
Basic Studies, Applied Projects, and Eventual
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" CONTI:NTS
Implementation: A Case History of Biological
and Cultural Research in Mental Health 203
CHAPTER 7 The Author: George DeVos 217
This Chapter 218
The Japanese Adapt to Change 219
CHAPTER 8 The Author· Weston I a Barre 258
This Chapter 258
The Clinic and the Field 259
The Author: John J. Honigmann 300
CHAPTER 9
This Chapter 301
The Personal Approach in Culture and
Personality Research 302
CHAPTER 10 The Author: Melford E. Spiro 330
This Chapter 330
Culture and Human Nature 331
CHAPTER 11 The Author: George Devereux 361
This Chapter 362
The Works of George Devereux 364
Part II
Introduction to Part II: George Spindler 409
CHAPTER 12 The AuthQr' Theodore Schwartz 417
This Chapter 418
Where Is the Culture? Personality as the
Distributive Locus of Culture 419
CHAPTER 13 The Author: Robert B. Edgerton 442
This Chapter 443
The Study of Deviance-Marginal Man
or Everyman? 444
CHAPTER 14 The Author: Erika Bourguignon 477
This Chapter 478
Spirit Possession and Altered States of
A rechtal Jk Oescho&rr ater~1
CONTENTS
'"
Consciousness: The Evolution of
an Inquiry 479
CHAPTER ]5 The Authors: Theodore D. Graves
Nancy B. Graves 516
This Chapter 517
Evolving Strategies in the Study of Culture
Change 518
CHAPTER 16 The Author: Victor Turner 556
This Chapter 557
Encounter with Freud: The Making of a
Comparative Symbologist 558
CHAPTER 17 The Author: Douglass Price-Williams 584
This Chapter 584
Cognition: Anthropological and Psychological
Nexus 586
CHAPTER 18 The Author: Michael Cole 612
This Chapter 612
Ethnographic Psychology of Cognition
So Far 614
Concluding Remarks: George Spindler 632
Index of Authors 637
General Index 647
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Preface
This volume includes critical reviews of their own work by twenty of
the people who have contributed significantly the development of
(0
that subdiscipline known today as psychological anthropology. These
reviews, in their totality, interact with nearly every currently important
part of psychological anthropology. SOffie amhors have emphasized
selected themes of their work, casting back into their past and
bringing the evolutionary process up dare. A few have elected
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discuss a problem that has recently emerged in their studies, but that
has roots in the past. Some focus almost entirely upon current work.
Whatever strategies are employed, these scrutinies of one's work ace
particularly telling because they are scrutinies by tbe worker himself or
herself with the virtues of hindsight. This volume provides an inside
view of the making of psychological anthropology.
The volume was conceived after Louise Spindler reviewed her and
George Spindler's work on the psychology of cultural change for the
Ninth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological
Sciences held in 1973.' Several colleagues read it and talked about it
with her. It suddenly seemed quite clear others should do the same
thing. The Making of Psychological Anthropology was underway. The
idea was circulated to colleagues in a series of memos and letters. Their
responses were enthusiastic and many discussions followed. The initial
focus was upon veterans who had labored for several decades in this
particular vineyard. Many of them were founders of the culture and
personality movement as well as contributors to psychological anthro
pology. Certain relative newcomers were invited to contribute so that
the profile of the field could be brought into focus in all of its
dimensions. A few potential contributors declined the invitation to
participate due to serious illness or preoccupation with ongoing work.
Not everyone is represented who should be, of course. There arc more
makers than twenty and some very significant ones.
The Milking of Psychological Anthropology is therefore both a
historical document and a rather special kind of contribution to the
sociology of knowledge. Self. analysis always reveals more than the
'Published in PJ]~hologiud Anthropology. edited by TIwmas R. Williams, Mouton
& Co., The Hague & Paris, 19n, and substantially rnised for this volume.
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• PREFACE
analyst knows. This volume is also a statement of current concerns. All
the contributors are still very active in the field; some have the larger
pan of their careers before them. A book of (his kind is not only a
repon of the evolmion of a field of knowledge and a statement of its
present condition; it helps determine the fmute course of its develop
memo Many different strands are being woven together-from the
older culture and personality, from cognitive psychology, psychoanaly
sis, behaviorism, ethnoscience, biology. and symbolic anthropology. It
is not surprising it lacks sharp boundaries and profiles. This book
cannot, therefore. furnish final judgments. h can make imponant
contributions to charaw:r definition. It is a substantial sample of what
is going on in minds that have created theories. devised methods.
produced descriptions and imerpretations of ways of life now gone or
much changed. all of which are pan of the foundations of an emerg
ing field as well as its history. It is worthy of serious study by anyone
who is imerested in culture and personality. psychological amhro
pology, cross-cultural psychology, social psychiatry. social psychology,
or allied fields. It is not imended as a text for an imroduc[Qry course
in culture and personality, though studems in such a course can read
most of the chapters with profit.
George Spil1dJer claims the editorship of this volume, though it
might well carry the joint editorship of George and Louise, for the
latter contributed [Q the developmem of it from the very start. As the
book took shape it seemed more effidem for one to take primary
responsibility for the editorial work and the other to do the review and
critique of their comributions [Q the field, as Louise Spindler has done
in her chapter.
As editor r wam [Q extend my heartfelt gratitude [Q all of the
comribu[Qrs [Q this book. They have been extraordinarily diligent,
resourceful, and patiem. Many colleagues comributed heavily [Q the
evolution of this project and they shall go unnamed but for Thomas
R. Williams, Paul Bohannan, Pertd Pelto, Henry Selby, Lois Floyd,
Bertha Quintana and David P. Boymon, who read the manuscript and
made cogent suggeslions for its improvement. We all owe Julia
KringeJ. Lillian Shapro, Marion Wachtel. Wini McCaffrey and Nancy
Ortiz special thanks for help on preparation of the manuscript and
circulation of memos and letters and related support activities.
The chapters in this book were written by people who are enthu
siastic about their work and its potential for a better understanding of
human affairs. It is all too easy to become jaded with the practical
exigencies of funding. administration. and academic politics and the
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