Ruth Benedict, Boasian Anthropology, and the Problem of the Colour Line

Abstract

Ruth Benedict is a major figure in twentieth-century anthropology but her writings on race and racism have been neglected. This article provides a critical reading of Race: Science and Politics (New York: Modern Age Books, 1940), and subsequent articles on the “race problem” in the USA. On the one hand, Benedict made original contributions to Boasian anthropology by developing a historical account of racism as a form of oppression particular to modernity and her own approach to combating racism that went beyond proscriptions of education and tolerance. On the other hand, we can identify paradoxes in her approach to anti-racism in the USA that revolve around her understanding of racial categories, whiteness, and “American culture”. By modelling the solution to racial discrimination in the USA on the assimilation of European immigrants, Benedict elides the differential effects of racial distinctions on the possibilities of national inclusion while rendering American racism distinct from American culture.