1914- 2003
Beatrice Blyth Whiting, a Professor Emeritus of Education and Anthropology at Harvard University, is most known for her work in comparative child development. She worked with her husband of nearly 62 years, John W. Whiting. John Whiting was a professor of Social Anthropology at Harvard. Together, they received the AAA’s Distinguished Service Award in 1982 and the Society for Psychological Anthropology’s Career Contribution Award in 1989.
Beatrice B. Whiting was the cofounder of Palfrey House, a laboratory of human development, on the Harvard Campus. She contributed much to the field of cultural anthropology through her studies of influence of culture on human development. It was Whiting’s goal to encourage research that spanned many cultures and to encourage anthropologists, sociologists and psychologists to collect and share comparative data. She was the author of several journal articles ranging in topics from comparisons of male sex roles and rites of manhood in various societies to folk wisdom of societies in child rearing practices.
The Whiting’s Six Cultures project, published in 1963, is likely their most famous work. The six cultures project collected field data in Mexico, India, Kenya, New England, Okinawa, and the Philippines. The emphasis of the study was on child-rearing and children’s behavior. The project included ethnographic notes, child observations, mother interviews, and photos.
Whiting was also the coeditor of the Handbook of Cross-cultural Human Development, a sampling of several studies in cross-cultural research published in 1981. Beatrice Whiting’s contributions to the field of cultural anthropology led to distinct, groundbreaking approaches in the importance of cross-cultural study. Her experience in education, as well as anthropology led to an understanding of the importance of cooperation between fields of study in understanding human development.
Munroe, R., Munroe, R., Whiting, B. (1981) Handbook of Cross-cultural Human Development. New York. Garland Publishing, Inc.
Harvard University Gazette. (May 20, 1999). Whiting, Expert in Child Development, Dies at Age 90. Harvard University. Retrived June 5, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/1999/05.20/whiting.obit.html
Human Relations Area Files-Cultural Information for Education & Research. Manuscripts and Archives. John W. M. Whiting and Beatrice B. Whiting Collection. Retrived June 5, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.yale.edu/hraf/manuscripts.html
Written by Melanie Hopman
Edited by Marcy L. Voelker, 2007