Clyde Kluckhohn was born in 1905 in LeMars, Iowa. He attended Princeton University until he left in 1923 due to poor health. He then spent a summer in the American Southwest where he developed his interests in both the past and the present. His interests were varied including archaeology, social anthropology, art, psychiatry, religion and language. He was a cultural anthropologist with a deep interest in culture and personality. He chose this profession based on his interest in psychology while at the same time expressing his interest in cultural diversity. He felt that diversities of authentic cultures must be represented in personality psychology. This contrasted beliefs of the “universality of culture, which states that certain biological, psychological, social, and cultural features are shared by all human populations in every culture" (Kottak, 1997. pp.43).
Clyde Kluckhohn’s solution to locating universals of personality while at the same time respecting the factual diversity of cultures was accomplished in the following manner. He devised breaking the problem down into manageable chunks in order to set limits on the demand for general trends. Clyde Kluckhohn was a firm believer in the principles of personality psychology. He elaborated this in an article entitled, “Anthropology and Psychology.” His respect was shown in an article for psychology, with the first line reading, “The anthropologist looks at the psychologist as the cat might look at the king.” (University of Pennsylvania). Kluckhohn displayed the fundamental importance of cultural anthropology as a source of information about human nature.
Dr. Kluckhohn went on to study the Navaho culture and personality. After extensive studies, Kluckhohn wrote two more cultural works. The first was a book entitled, Mirror for Man in 1952 and Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions (Encyclopedia.com). In his first work, Mirror for Man, Kluckhohn wrote about the relations between biology, culture, ethnocentrism, and cultural relativism. Relating to personality psychology, Kluckhohn felt that people think their own cultural beliefs and practices are normal and natural, and those of others are strange or even inferior (Keel, umsl.edu). Kluckhohn’s belief that we are the product of a strange and interesting mix of biology and culture is highly applicable to both psychology and anthropology.
Clyde Kluckholm was the Curator of Southwestern American Ethnology at the Peabody Museum until his death in 1960.
Kottak, Conrad (1997). Anthropology: The Exploration of Human Diversity. 7th Edition.
Electronic Library (1998). http://www.encyclopedia.com, June 6th 1999.
Written by Corey Alex