Anthropological Perspectives on National Character

Abstract

Anthropological interest in the field of national character was stimulated by World War II and motivated by a desire to improve transnational understanding. Since 1956, however, anthropologists have tended to withdraw from con tinuing work on national character, which they look upon as a specialized extension of personality and culture. The holistic emphasis of cultural anthropology is more comfortably ex pressed in the study of tribal societies than it is when applied to nations. In this decade, anthropologists have largely re verted to tribal studies or the application of testing instruments (borrowed from psychology) to limited segments of national populations.