Ruth Benedict’s Correspondences to and from the Field (1924-1934) with Comments on the Difficulty of Filling in the Context for the Intellectual Interaction between Benedict and Her Fellow Researchers

摘要

This is a translation from English to Japanese of Ruth Benedict's selected correspondences to and from the field (1924-1934) that was published as a chapter in the book An Anthropologist at Work: Writings of Ruth Benedict (1959). There are particular difficulties associated with the translation of correspondences between fellow researchers. One such difficulty is that many of the letters refer to academic discussions that Benedict had with Mead, Fortune, or Boas, the content of which we have no access to, or to books or research papers that we cannot be expected to know the full content of, or to people that we have very little information about, or to events that we can only guess about. This meant that we had to frequently interrupt our translation to figure out what was being referred to in the letters. Another difficulty of translating letters has to do with the intimate content of the writing. These were private letters, only meant to be viewed by the receiver, so there are frank criticisms, gossip about colleagues and expressions of intimate affection. Of course, these factors make this material all the more valuable for researchers, but without precise knowledge of how intimate the two correspondents were, it was often difficult to select the right tone of voice. There were also references to past private conversations between the correspondents that were difficult to decipher. On top of all this, Mead, in editing the letters, cut out parts of the letters, which sometimes made the content less cohesive. In translating the letters, it became clear to us that there was much bouncing of intellectual ideas between Benedict and Mead, and also that they supported each other during the difficult times they had in the field.