--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: The purpose of anthropology is to make…" description: "\"The purpose of anthropology is to make the world safe for human differences.\" — Ruth Benedict" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/223/ruth-benedict-10946_anthropology_the-purpose-of-anthropology-is-to-make-t_722992.jpg" --- # The purpose of anthropology is to make the world safe for… ![“The purpose of anthropology is to make the world safe for human differences.” quote by Ruth Benedict](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/223/ruth-benedict-10946_anthropology_the-purpose-of-anthropology-is-to-make-t_722992.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/223/ruth-benedict-10946_anthropology_the-purpose-of-anthropology-is-to-make-t_722992.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/223/ruth-benedict-10946_anthropology_the-purpose-of-anthropology-is-to-make-t_722992.jpg) > “The purpose of anthropology is to make the world safe for human differences.” [Ruth Benedict](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ruth-benedict/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Anthropology aims to protect diverse human ways of life by fostering understanding and respect. **In simple terms:** Study cultures to keep human differences safe. Key Takeaway Promote empathy and protect diversity. Themes culture diversity human rights Mood inspirational thoughtful Type philosophical educational When to use this quote - education - policy making - community building Key Concepts anthropology social cohesion Questions to Reflect On - What can you do to celebrate cultural differences today? - How does understanding another culture change your worldview? A Different Perspective Overemphasis on differences may cause division. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Anthropology](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anthropology/) [Differences](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/differences/) [Purpose](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/purpose/) [World](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/world/) ## Related quotes > [...to make the world safe for democracy.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/woodrow-wilson/to-make-the-world-safe-for-democracy/) [Woodrow Wilson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/woodrow-wilson/) > [He felt safe with her. He'd never been safe with another human being, not since he'd been taken as a child from his home.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christine-feehan/he-felt-safe-with-her-he-d-never-been-safe-with-another-human-being/) [Christine Feehan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christine-feehan/) > [The scientific world is to be less threatening than was feared. It is to made safe for human beings. And the way to make…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/simon-blackburn/the-scientific-world-is-to-be-less-threatening-than-was-feared-it-is/) [Simon Blackburn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/simon-blackburn/) > [“Institutionalized rejection of difference is an absolute necessity in a profit economy which needs outsiders as surplus people. As members of such an economy,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/audre-lorde/institutionalized-rejection-of-difference-is-an-absolute-necessity-in/) [Audre Lorde](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/audre-lorde/) > [Civilization, to be worthy of the name, must afford other methods of settling human differences than those of blood letting.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-chaplin/civilization-to-be-worthy-of-the-name-must-afford-other-methods-of/) [Ralph Chaplin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-chaplin/) > [“Are we safe from human exposure? I don't want the owners to find a busted-up angel and a buzzed vampire lurking in their shed…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brandy-nacole/are-we-safe-from-human-exposure-i-don-t-want-the-owners-to-find-a/) [Brandy Nacole](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brandy-nacole/) > [Institutionalized rejection of differences is an absolute necessity in a profit economy which needs outsiders as surplus people. As members of such an economy,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/audre-lorde/institutionalized-rejection-of-differences-is-an-absolute-necessity/) [Audre Lorde](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/audre-lorde/) > [At fourteen, you really do start realising that the world is not a safe and protected place or not always.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/j-k-rowling-2/at-fourteen-you-really-do-start-realising-that-the-world-is-not-a/) [J. K. Rowling](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/j-k-rowling-2/) > [The war we have to wage today has only one goal and that is to make the world safe for diversity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/u-thant/the-war-we-have-to-wage-today-has-only-one-goal-and-that-is-to-make/) [U Thant](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/u-thant/) > [Women have got to make the world safe for men, since men have made it so darned unsafe for women.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/women-have-got-to-make-the-world-safe-for-men-since-men-have-made-it/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [You can make your children safe in the world, or you can try to make a world safe for children.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/you-can-make-your-children-safe-in-the-world-or-you-can-try-to-make-a/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“I’ll make the world safe and sound for you… …will come of age with our young nation We’ll bleed and fight for you, we’ll…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lin-manuel-miranda/i-ll-make-the-world-safe-and-sound-for-you-will-come-of-age-with-our/) [Lin-Manuel Miranda](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lin-manuel-miranda/) > [What I want for children in our country and around the world is safe, stable and loving homes.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/laura-bush/what-i-want-for-children-in-our-country-and-around-the-world-is-safe/) [Laura Bush](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/laura-bush/) > [“Of course. I am well aware that the streets of New York are not safe, but then there is no longer any place in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/madeline-l-engle/of-course-i-am-well-aware-that-the-streets-of-new-york-are-not-safe/) [Madeline L'Engle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/madeline-l-engle/) > [When you are a child you learn your alphabet, your numbers, but increasingly, we must learn from the earliest stages that the highest priority…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sylvia-earle/when-you-are-a-child-you-learn-your-alphabet-your-numbers-but/) [Sylvia Earle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sylvia-earle/) ## More by Ruth Benedict > [We grow in time to trust the future for our answers.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ruth-benedict/we-grow-in-time-to-trust-the-future-for-our-answers/) [Ruth Benedict](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ruth-benedict/) > [An observer will see the bizarre developments of behavior only in alien cultures, not his own. Nevertheless this is obviously a local and temporary…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ruth-benedict/an-observer-will-see-the-bizarre-developments-of-behavior-only-in/) [Ruth Benedict](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ruth-benedict/) > [In world history, those who have helped to build the same culture are not necessarily of one race, and those of the same race…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ruth-benedict/in-world-history-those-who-have-helped-to-build-the-same-culture-are/) [Ruth Benedict](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ruth-benedict/) > [It is strange how long we rebel against a platitude until suddenly in a different lingo it looms up again as the only verity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ruth-benedict/it-is-strange-how-long-we-rebel-against-a-platitude-until-suddenly-in/) [Ruth Benedict](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ruth-benedict/) > [“Experience, contrary to common belief, is mostly imagination.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ruth-benedict/experience-contrary-to-common-belief-is-mostly-imagination/) [Ruth Benedict](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ruth-benedict/) > [I gambled on having the strength to live two lives, one for myself and one for the world.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ruth-benedict/i-gambled-on-having-the-strength-to-live-two-lives-one-for-myself-and/) [Ruth Benedict](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ruth-benedict/) > [Western civilization, because of fortuitous historical circumstances, has spread itself more widely than any other local group that has so far been known.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ruth-benedict/western-civilization-because-of-fortuitous-historical-circumstances/) [Ruth Benedict](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ruth-benedict/) > [The trouble is not that we are never happy - it is that happiness is so episodical](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ruth-benedict/the-trouble-is-not-that-we-are-never-happy-it-is-that-happiness-is-so/) [Ruth Benedict](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ruth-benedict/) > [It is my necessary breath of life to understand and expression is the only justification of life that I can feel without prodding.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ruth-benedict/it-is-my-necessary-breath-of-life-to-understand-and-expression-is-the/) [Ruth Benedict](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ruth-benedict/) > [Success and failure in our own national economy will hang upon the degree to which we are able to work with races and nations…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ruth-benedict/success-and-failure-in-our-own-national-economy-will-hang-upon-the/) [Ruth Benedict](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ruth-benedict/) > [I haven't strength of mind not to need a career.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ruth-benedict/i-haven-t-strength-of-mind-not-to-need-a-career/) [Ruth Benedict](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ruth-benedict/) > [As a matter of history great developments in art have often been remarkably separate from religious motivation and use.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ruth-benedict/as-a-matter-of-history-great-developments-in-art-have-often-been/) [Ruth Benedict](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ruth-benedict/) > [The Japanese are, to the highest degree, both aggressive and unaggressive, both militaristic and aesthetic, both insolent and polite, rigid and adaptable, submissive and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ruth-benedict/the-japanese-are-to-the-highest-degree-both-aggressive-and/) [Ruth Benedict](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ruth-benedict/) > [Society in its full sense ... is never an entity separable from the individuals who compose it. No individual can arrive even at the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ruth-benedict/society-in-its-full-sense-is-never-an-entity-separable-from-the/) [Ruth Benedict](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ruth-benedict/) > [In a world that holds books and babies and canyon trails, why should one condemn oneself to live day-in, day-out with people one does…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ruth-benedict/in-a-world-that-holds-books-and-babies-and-canyon-trails-why-should/) [Ruth Benedict](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ruth-benedict/) [Explore all 62 Ruth Benedict quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ruth-benedict/) ## More Anthropology quotes > [“Marriage," "mating," and "love" are socially constructed phenomena that have little or no transferable meaning outside any given culture. The examples we've noted of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-ryan/marriage-mating-and-love-are-socially-constructed-phenomena-that-have/) [Christopher Ryan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-ryan/) > [ Anthropology has always struggled with an intense, fascinated repulsion towards its subject… \[The anthropologist\] submits himself to the exotic to confirm his own inner… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-an-intense-fascinated/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [“A geneticist is a geek who claims to have proven through regression analyses that a Neanderthal had sex with your great-grandmother 50,000 years ago.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-gaede/a-geneticist-is-a-geek-who-claims-to-have-proven-through-regression/) [Bill Gaede](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-gaede/) > [Michael Jackson is an extremely productive ethnographer, a serious reader of phenomenological and existential philosophy, and a remarkable writer at a level that one…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/arthur-kleinman/michael-jackson-is-an-extremely-productive-ethnographer-a-serious/) [Arthur Kleinman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/arthur-kleinman/) > [Archaeology is the anthropology of the past, and science fiction is the anthropology of the future.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-d-vinge/archaeology-is-the-anthropology-of-the-past-and-science-fiction-is/) [Joan D. Vinge](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-d-vinge/) > [Modern anthropology ... opposes the utilitarian assumption that the primitive chants as he sows seed because he believes that otherwise it will not grow,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-carroll/modern-anthropology-opposes-the-utilitarian-assumption-that-the/) [John Carroll](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-carroll/) > [For me, a bit of anthropology in the evening is always better than staying and watching the telly.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-rhodes/for-me-a-bit-of-anthropology-in-the-evening-is-always-better-than/) [Nick Rhodes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nick-rhodes/) > [When you ask why did some particular question occur to a scientist or philosopher for the first time, or why did this particular approach…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rebecca-goldstein/when-you-ask-why-did-some-particular-question-occur-to-a-scientist-or/) [Rebecca Goldstein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rebecca-goldstein/) > [I didn't major in anthropology in college, but I do feel I had an education in different cultures very early on. My parents divorced…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lily-king/i-didn-t-major-in-anthropology-in-college-but-i-do-feel-i-had-an/) [Lily King](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lily-king/) > [Anthropology is the only discipline that can access evidence about the entire human experience on this planet.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-brian-schiffer/anthropology-is-the-only-discipline-that-can-access-evidence-about/) Michael Brian Schiffer > [“All social interactions require some loss of freedom.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erol-ozan/all-social-interactions-require-some-loss-of-freedom/) [Erol Ozan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erol-ozan/) > [“Morphological anthropology applied to the physical study of children, is also a strong element in the growth of the new pedagogy.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/montessori-maria/morphological-anthropology-applied-to-the-physical-study-of-children/) Montessori Maria > [There are savages without God in any proper sense of the word, but none without ghosts.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/there-are-savages-without-god-in-any-proper-sense-of-the-word-but/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Anthropology was the science that gave her the platform from which she surveyed, scolded and beamed at the world.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-howard/anthropology-was-the-science-that-gave-her-the-platform-from-which/) [Jane Howard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-howard/) > [It's always amusing to look at how something early in the 20th century was written in anthropology and how it's written now. There's been…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/it-s-always-amusing-to-look-at-how-something-early-in-the-20th/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) [Browse all 286 Anthropology quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anthropology/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "The purpose of anthropology is to make the world safe for human differences.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ruth Benedict" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ruth-benedict/the-purpose-of-anthropology-is-to-make-the-world-safe-for-human/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Anthropology" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ruth-benedict/the-purpose-of-anthropology-is-to-make-the-world-safe-for-human/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/223/ruth-benedict-10946_anthropology_the-purpose-of-anthropology-is-to-make-t_722992.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/223/ruth-benedict-10946_anthropology_the-purpose-of-anthropology-is-to-make-t_722992.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/223/ruth-benedict-10946_anthropology_the-purpose-of-anthropology-is-to-make-t_722992.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The purpose of anthropology is to make the world safe for human differences.” — Ruth Benedict", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Ruth Benedict", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ruth-benedict/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "The purpose of anthropology is to...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ruth-benedict/the-purpose-of-anthropology-is-to-make-the-world-safe-for-human/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ruth-benedict/the-purpose-of-anthropology-is-to-make-the-world-safe-for-human/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```