The United States on the eve of the Second World War was still a society
largely isolated from the world. Facing enemies with unfamiliar cultural
traditions, the U.S. government turned to anthropologists for insight.
The result was a research effort that continued long after the war,
aimed, in the words of Margaret Mead, at analyzing the cultural
regularities in the characters of individuals who are members of
societies that are inaccessible to direct observation. In 1953, Margaret
Mead and Rhoda Métraux produced The Study of Culture at a Distance, a
compilation of research from this period. This remarkable work, long
unavailable, presents a rich and complex methodology for the study of
cultures through literature, film, informant interviews, focus groups,
and projective techniques. The book also provides fascinating insights
into such diverse cultures as China, Thailand, Italy, Syria, France,
Germany, Russia, Romania, and Great Britain, and includes some highly
original analysis such as that of the Soviet style of chess, a study of
Jean Cocteau's classic film La Belle et la Bête, and the cultural
interpretations of Rorschach tests administered to Chinese subjects.