Cora Du Bois facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Cora Du Bois
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Jeanne Taylor, Gérard Du Bois, and Cora Du Bois (1980)
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Cora Alice Du Bois
October 26, 1903 New Jersey, US
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| Died | April 7, 1991 (aged 87) |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Barnard College, Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley |
| Occupation | Anthropologist |
| Known for | Culture and personality studies and psychological anthropology |
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Notable work
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| Title | President, American Anthropological Association (1968–69) President, Association for Asian Studies (1969–70) |
| Partner(s) | Jeanne Taylor |
| Awards | Exceptional Civilian Service Award Order of the Crown of Thailand |
Cora Alice Du Bois (born October 26, 1903 – died April 7, 1991) was an American anthropologist. An anthropologist studies human societies and cultures. Cora Du Bois was a very important person in the field of "culture and personality studies." This area of study looks at how culture shapes people's minds and behaviors.
She was a professor at Radcliffe College starting in 1954. After she retired, she taught at Cornell University and the University of California, San Diego. In 1955, she became a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was also the president of the American Anthropological Association from 1968 to 1969. Then, from 1969 to 1970, she led the Association for Asian Studies. She was the first woman to hold this important position.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Cora Du Bois was born in New York City on October 26, 1903. Her parents, Mattie Schreiber Du Bois and Jean Du Bois, came from Switzerland. She grew up mostly in New Jersey. She finished high school in Perth Amboy.
She first studied library science for a year. Then, she went to Barnard College and got a degree in history in 1927. She earned a master's degree in history from Columbia University in 1928.
At Columbia, she took an anthropology class with famous professors Ruth Benedict and Franz Boas. This class made her want to study anthropology more. So, she moved to California. There, she studied Native American cultures with Alfred L. Kroeber and Robert Lowie. She earned her Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1932.
Her doctoral paper was about how different Native American groups viewed customs related to growing up. She was very interested in how culture affects human behavior.
Early Work and Native American Studies
It was often hard for women to get university jobs back then. So, Cora Du Bois stayed at Berkeley as a teaching and research assistant from 1932 to 1935. In 1932, her article "Tolowa Notes" was published. This article explored the culture of the Tolowa people. It included information about important ceremonies for young girls. For example, it talked about nose piercing and fasting for puberty ceremonies. It also discussed how gifts were exchanged before marriage.
She also worked to record the cultures of several Native American groups. These included the Wintu Indians in northern California. This type of work is called "salvage ethnography." It means studying and recording cultures that are changing quickly. She published "A Study of Wintu Myths." This study looked at how Wintu stories changed or stayed the same over time. The Wintu people had different kinds of stories. Some were called "bolas," others were "ninas" (love songs), and some were like everyday anecdotes. The Wintu believed that telling stories at the wrong time could even affect the weather! In 1939, she published "The 1870 Ghost Dance." This was a study of a religious movement among Native Americans in the Western U.S.
In 1935, Du Bois received a special grant. It allowed her to learn about how anthropology and psychology could work together. She spent time at the Boston Psychopathic Hospital and the New York Psychoanalytic Society. In New York, she worked with psychiatrist Abram Kardiner. He became her guide and partner in studying how culture affects people's minds. Du Bois also taught at Hunter College from 1936 to 1937. During this time, she developed new ideas for her research.
Research in Indonesia and World War II Service
From 1937 to 1939, Cora Du Bois lived and did research on Alor Island in what is now Indonesia. She gathered many detailed stories and conducted personality tests. She worked with Abram Kardiner to understand her findings. In 1944, she published her major work, The People of Alor: A Social-Psychological Study of an East Indian Island.
In this book, she introduced the idea of "modal personality structure." This means that while everyone in a culture is unique, each culture tends to encourage certain types of personalities. These types become the most common in that culture. Her work greatly influenced other anthropologists who studied psychology.
During World War II, many American scientists helped their country. Cora Du Bois worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). This was a U.S. intelligence agency. She was in charge of the Indonesia section. In 1944, she moved to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). There, she led research for the Army's Southeast Asia Command.
For her service, the United States Army gave her the Department of the Army Distinguished Civilian Service Award in 1946. The government of Thailand also honored her in 1949. They gave her the Order of the Crown of Thailand for her help during the war.
Later Work and Harvard Career
After World War II, she left the OSS. From 1945 to 1949, she worked for the State Department. She was the chief of the Southeast Asia Branch in the Office of Intelligence Research. In 1950, she was offered a top job at the anthropology department at Berkeley. But she turned it down. This was because she refused to sign a special loyalty oath required for all faculty members at the time.
She then worked for the World Health Organization from 1950 to 1951. In 1954, she accepted a position at Harvard University. She became the second person to be the Samuel Zemurray Jr. and Doris Zemurray Stone-Radcliffe Professor at Radcliffe College. In 1955, she was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was the first woman to become a tenured professor in Harvard's Anthropology Department in 1954. She was also the second woman to become a tenured professor in Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
During this time, Du Bois wrote "The Dominant Value Profile of American Culture." In this work, she looked at American values. She discussed four main ideas that shape American culture. These were:
- The universe works like a machine.
- Humans can control the universe.
- All people are equal.
- People can always improve themselves.
From these ideas, she found three main values:
- Wanting material comfort (like having nice things).
- Fitting in with others.
- Believing that hard work leads to success.
She believed these ideas and values had been true for the American middle class for a long time.
She also wrote many reviews of other people's books. For example, in 1950, she reviewed "The Kalingas, Their Institutes, and Custom Law." She thought it was one of the best books about the laws of the Philippines Tribes. In 1957, she reviewed "Chinese Society in Thailand."
From 1961 to 1967, she did research in the temple city of Bhubaneshwar in Orissa, India. Many of her students also did their fieldwork there.
She retired from Harvard in 1970. But she kept teaching at Cornell University (1971–1976) and the University of California, San Diego (1976). Most of her research notes and personal papers are kept at the Tozzer Library at Harvard University. Some are also at the Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago.
Personal Life
Cora Du Bois met Jeanne Taylor while they were both working for the OSS in Ceylon. They became close companions and lived together. They even visited Julia Child and her husband in Paris in the 1950s. Cora Du Bois's obituary in The New York Times mentioned Jeanne Taylor as her "longtime companion." Their biography at the Harvard Library says they "enjoyed an active social life" together.
Death
Cora Du Bois passed away on April 11, 1991, in Brookline, Massachusetts. She was 87 years old.
Selected Works
- Cora Du Bois (1950). Review of The Kalingas, Their Institutes, and Custom Law. Arlington, Virginia: American Anthropological Association
- Cora Du Bois (1957). Review of Chinese Society in Thailand: An Analytical History. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The American Academy of Political and Social Science
Images for kids
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Jeanne Taylor, Gérard Du Bois, and Cora Du Bois (1980)
