Richard Shweder

Richard A. Shweder, is an American cultural anthropologist and a significant figure in cultural psychology. He received his B.A. in anthropology from the University of Pittsburgh in 1966 and his Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from Harvard University's Department of Social Relations in 1972. He taught at the University of Nairobi in Nairobi, Kenya, for one year. Since 1973, he has been a faculty member at the University of Chicago where he is currently professor in the Department of Comparative Human Development and in the Department of Psychology.

His main fieldwork outside the United States has been in the temple town of Bhubaneswar in the state of Orissa, India.[1] Among other topics, his fieldwork in India has looked at cross-cultural concepts of the person, self, emotions, and moral reasoning.

He has also published extensively on matters relevant to the "culture wars" debates in cultural studies in the U.S., and has advocated forms of cultural pluralism while being mindful of the practical and ethical difficulties certain kinds of pluralism entail. He chaired a joint Social Science Research Council/Russell Sage Foundation Working Group on "Ethnic Customs, Assimilation and American Law", concerned with the issue of the "Free exercise of culture: How Free Is It? How Free Ought It To Be?" He has also commented upon military uses of anthropology for counterinsurgency and other purposes outside of the United States.

He is a past president of the Society for Psychological Anthropology. He is the recipient of numerous academic awards and research grants.

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Selected publications

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