Dr. Rhoda Bubendey Metraux (1914–2003), was a prominent anthropologist in the area of cross-cultural studies, specializing in Haitian voodoo and the Iatmul of New Guinea. She collaborated with Alfred Metraux, on mutual studies of Voodoo in Haiti. During World War II, Dr. Metraux headed the section on German morale for the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS).
Rhoda Metraux was also an important professional and personal partner of Margaret Mead (1901–1978). Together with Mead, she wrote several books and many articles on major issues from the 1950s to the late 1970s. As a contributing editor to Redbook magazine for well over a decade, both wrote many articles on contemporary issues that later formed the basis of a number of books including A Way of Seeing. Margaret Mead and Rhoda Metraux were in fact a close-knit professional team whose work greatly influenced American anthropology in the late 20th century. They shared a house in Greenwich Village in New York from 1955 to 1966 and an apartment on Central Park West from 1966 to 1978.
(by Dr. Wilton S. Dillon)
Dr. Rhoda Metraux, a pioneer cultural anthropologist who worked in World War II to help the U.S. and allies understand themselves and their adversaries, died in Barton, Vermont November 26, 2003. She suffered from Alzheimer's disease. With the advent of U.S. and U.N. involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq, her work on "national character" is taking on contemporary significance by scholars and public servants interested in the application of the behavioral sciences to making foreign policy. Apart from public affairs issues, Metraux explored the intersections of anthropology, psychotherapy and literature. Her comparative and qualitative approaches to anthropology drew upon her research in both nation-states and the Iatmul people of New Guinea.
As a collaborator of Margaret Mead (1901–1978), Metraux co-edited with Mead the 1953 book, The Study of Culture at a Distance, and Themes in French Culture. Both were re-published during the Mead centennial in 2001, and were cited in the Smithsonian-Library of Congress symposium, "The Interplay of Cultures: Whither the U.S. in the World?" From 1947 to 1953, she was a key participant in the Columbia University "Research on Contemporary Cultures Project" financed, in part, by the Office of Naval Research. Readers of Redbook magazine in the 1960s and 1970s could find her insights and findings reflected in Margaret Mead's column aimed mainly at women.
Born Rhoda Bubendey in Brooklyn, N.Y. October 18, 1914 to a prominent German banking family, she was educated at Packer School, and studied literature at Vassar College, graduating in 1934, and serving later as an editor at Oxford University Press. Columbia University awarded her a Ph.D. in 1951 for her work on Haitian Voodoo. Her varied research projects included studying cultural factors influencing physical and mental health of Chinese expatriates in New York separated from their homeland by the Communist revolution.
Like Ruth Benedict, another Mead collaborator, who helped influence the retention of the Emperor system in Japan, Metraux served on the planning staff of the Office of Strategic Services. She estimated the morale of armed forces of Germany and Japan. Coincidentally, her husband, the celebrated Swiss-Argentine onetime Smithsonian anthropologist, Alfred Metraux, participated in studies of the Strategic Bombing Survey of Germany. (He was the founder of anthropology in Argentina, and author of classical works on the sculpture of Easter Island, the history of the Inca, Haitian voodoo, and of early UNESCO statements on race. He is to be the focus of a Smithsonian exhibition in 2006 on the history of 20th century anthropology to which both made unique contributions). Their marriage ended in divorce. The intellectual legacy of both parents has enriched the career of their son, Dr. Daniel Metraux, founder of the Department of Asian Studies, Mary Baldwin College, Staunton, Virginia.
During her professional career, Dr. Metraux served as Research Associate at the American Museum of Natural History, an advisor to the Office of Interdisciplinary Studies at the Smithsonian, and as a consultant to the Institute for Intercultural Studies of New York, founded by Margaret Mead.
Her decades of association with Mead made her particularly valuable to the Library of Congress in processing the vast collection of Mead manuscripts and related memorabilia deposited there.
A memorial service was held in Greensboro, Vermont in July 2004
Survivors include a brother, Paul Bubendey, Vero Beach, Fl. a son, Daniel Metraux, Staunton, Va., a grandson, David Metraux, Syracuse, N.Y., and a granddaughter, Katherine Metraux, Pioneer, California.