Rhoda Bubendey Métraux

Rhoda Bubendey Metraux (18 October 1914, New York City – 26 November 2003, Barton, Vermont), was a prominent anthropologist in the area of cross-cultural studies, specializing in Haitian voodoo and the Iatmul people of the middle Sepik River in Papua New Guinea.^[1] She collaborated with Alfred Metraux, on mutual studies of Voodoo in Haiti. During World War II, 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 City from 1955 to 1966 and an apartment on Central Park West from 1966 until Mead's death in 1978.

Important works

• The Study of Culture at a Distance (1953)
• Themes of French Culture (1954)
• Culture and Psychotherapy (1974)
• A Way of Seeing (1975)
• "An Interview with Santa Claus" (1978)

Metraux's writings on the Iatmul people include:

• "Eidos and Change: Continuity in Process, Discontinuity in Product." In Socialization in Cultural Communication, 1976, T. Schwartz, ed. pp. 201 16. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• "Aristocracy and Meritocracy: Leadership among the Eastern Iatmul." Anthropological Quarterly 51 (1978) 47 58.
• "Music in Tambunum." In Sepik Heritage: Tradition and Change in Papua New Guinea, 1990, N. Lutkehaus et al., eds. pp. 523 34. Durham: Carolina Academic Press.

References

External links

• Rhoda Metraux