Beatrice Blyth Whiting

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Medical and psychological anthropology
Part of a series on
Basic concepts Health Culture-bound syndrome Double bind
Case studies Navajo medicine
Related articles Nutritional anthropology Psychological anthropology Cognitive anthropology Transpersonal anthropology Ethnomedicine Clinical ethnography Critical medical anthropology Cross-cultural psychiatry Person-centered ethnography Society for Medical Anthropology National character studies Syndemic
Major theorists Gregory Bateson Maurice Bloch Charles L. Briggs Veena Das George Devereux Cora DuBois Paul Farmer Michael M. J. Fischer Arthur Kleinman Charles Laughlin Robert I. Levy Ralph Linton Tanya Luhrmann Marvin Opler Michelle Rosaldo Nancy Scheper-Hughes Richard Shweder Merrill Singer Dan Sperber Melford Spiro Beatrice Whiting John Whiting
Journals Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry Medical Anthropology Quarterly Anthropology of Consciousness
Social and cultural anthropology
v t e

Beatrice Blyth Whiting (14 April 1914, New York City - 29 September 2003, Cambridge, Massachusetts), was an American anthropologist specializing in the comparative study of child development.^[1] Together with her husband John Whiting, she was a key figure in the Harvard Department of Social Relations and a pioneer in the cross-cultural study of childhood and child development.

Born on Staten Island in 1914, she received her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College in 1935. She then studied anthropology at Yale. In 1943, she became one of the first women to receive a PhD from that department for her fieldwork among the Paiute Indians of Oregon.^[2]

Beatrice Whiting did much of her work in collaboration with her husband John Whiting, also an anthropologist at Harvard. Often they did fieldwork together, with Beatrice focusing on the experience of women and girls and John focusing on the experience of men and boys.

Beatrice Whiting joined the Harvard faculty in 1952. In 1954, she and her husband began the Six Cultures Study of Socialization,^[1] a project that involved field studies in Mexico, India, Kenya, Okinawa, the Philippines and the United States. The project continues to be regarded as one of the most ambitious comparative studies of child development and family life. In 1966, the Whitings founded the Child Development Research Unit at the University of Nairobi to conduct more intensive studies in Kenya. She became one of the first women to receive tenure at Harvard University when she was named professor at the graduate school of education in 1974. In the 1980s, after their retirement from Harvard, the Whitings turned their attention to older children, directing the Comparative Adolescence Project.

Personal life

When not in Cambridge or on fieldwork expeditions, the Whitings spent significant time in Chilmark, on Martha's Vineyard, where John had grown up. They had one daughter, Susan.

References

↑ 1.0 1.1 Stuart Lavietes (October 19, 2003). "Beatrice Whiting, 89, an Expert On Culture's Role in Personality". New York Times. Retrieved June 6, 2012.
↑ "Beatrice Blyth Whiting, anthropologist, dies at 89". Harvard Gazette. Retrieved June 6, 2012.

Persondata
Name	Whiting, Beatrice Blyth
Alternative names
Short description	American anthropologist
Date of birth	14 April 1914
Place of birth
Date of death	29 September 2003
Place of death

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.