SenD#5960
MEMORIAL RESOLUTION
BENJAMIN DAVID PAUL
(1911-2005)
Benjamin David (Ben) Paul, a Professor of Anthropology and leading medical
anthropologist, who spearheaded the growth of Stanford's Anthropology Department,
transforming it into one of the top ten departments in the country, died in Atlanta on May
24, 2005, from complications following a cerebral hemorrhage.
Ben Paul joined the Stanford Anthropology Department in 1963 as one of the
generation of scholars who developed world-class social science scholarship at Stanford. As
Anthropology chair from 1967 to 1971, he pursued every opportunity to increase the
department's size, prestige, and national ranking. He oversaw the hiring of several new
faculty members, including the first women in tenure track positions in Anthropology at
Stanford. Under his leadership, the Stanford department rose to seventh in the national
rankings despite having one of the smallest faculties and notwithstanding its specialization
in social and cultural anthropology.
Ben Paul also spearheaded the growth and prestige of the graduate program in
Anthropology. In the 1960's he secured a multi-year grant from the National Institute of
Mental Health to fund graduate training. Through careful management of extramural
grants and internal Graduate Division fellowships, Ben Paul institutionalized full, four-year
funding for doctoral candidates that included pre-dissertation awards for students to visit
potential field sites, as well as training in writing well-crafted proposals to secure
dissertation research grants from the National Science Foundation, the Wenner Gren
Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, Fulbright, and other funding sources.
Ben Paul's colleagues remember him as a very effective department chair. He had a
canny ability to anticipate outcomes and circumvent problems. By using his ties to others in
the University and the discipline, he helped both colleagues and students obtain funding for
individual research projects and departmental programs. Ben Paul had a reputation for
getting things done. During his years as chair, all of Stanford was expanding, but Ben Paul
was particularly adept at taking advantage of every opportunity to increase the size and
prestige of the Anthropology Department. During his first years at Stanford, from 1963 until
1971, Ben Paul directed the Program in Medicine and the Behavioral Sciences that brought
physicians and public health faculty from the School of Medicine together with social
scientists to promote and develop the field of medical anthropology
Ben Paul was born in Manhattan on January 25, 1911, but soon moved with his family
to Gunnison, Utah, where his Jewish immigrant parents went to join an agricultural
commune known as the Clarion Community, formed under the Homestead Act. When he
was around ten years old, he moved with his family to another farm in Indiana. Later, after
attending a two-year experimental college program at the University of Wisconsin, he
transferred to the University of Chicago where he studied Anthropology and obtained his
A.B. in 1938 and his Ph.D. in 1942. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 1938. While at the
Benjamin Paul Memorial Resolution—continued...
University of Chicago, he met his wife, Lois Fleischman, a talented artist, who joined him in
field work in San Pedro la Laguna, Guatemala, where she painted local scenes and
participated in research resulting in co-authored articles on marriage patterns and the
practices of Mayan midwives. Lois Paul became a research associate in the Stanford
Department of Anthropology. She died in 1975.
From 1944 to 1946, Ben Paul served in the U.S. Army as a clinical psychologist. In
1946, he moved to Harvard, where he worked in a variety of teaching, research, and
administrative positions. In 1951, he was invited to start a new program in the Harvard
School of Public Health that introduced medical students to methods used in the social
sciences. He directed this program from 1951 until 1962. During his tenure, he edited an
influential textbook, "Health, Culture and Community: Case Studies of Public Reactions to
Health Programs" (1955) that explored public reactions to a cholera epidemic in China, a
birth control program in Puerto Rico, and an initiative to purify the water supply of a
Peruvian village, among other case studies. As editor of the book, Paul argued that
international aid programs, such as those run by the World Health Organization and other
humanitarian groups, had to consider local cultural traditions if they hoped to affect
people's behavior and improve their health. This groundbreaking textbook continues to be
widely used in graduate and undergraduate courses. Paul's son, Robert A. Paul, Dean of
Emory College and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Emory University and also an
anthropologist, called his father "one of the founding fathers of medical anthropology" due
to this edited collection, which provided the first systematic analysis of the role that culture
plays in people's acceptance of health programs
Ben Paul devoted several years of his life to anthropological field research, primarily
in the community of San Pedro la Laguna in highland Guatemala, which he first visited as a
graduate student in 1941. He wrote on several aspects of contemporary Mayan culture,
many of which were related to public health concerns, such as bone setting and intracommunity conflict. He also wrote on topics such as education and coffee production.
Perhaps his most influential paper is one he co-authored with a former student, William J.
Demarest, about the corrosive social effects of the dirty war in Guatemala, titled "The
Operation of a Death Squad in San Pedro la Laguna." In this widely cited paper, the authors
explained how many forces and factors split the community and led to cases of political
murder and betrayal.
The Mayan people of San Pedro la Laguna demonstrated their love and respect for
Ben Paul and his wife Lois by naming a school in their honor. When Ben Paul died, the
community observed three days of mourning and the local Roman Catholic Church held a
Mass in remembrance. He was 89 when he made his last visit to the community.
Ben Paul received many honors in his life. He was elected president of the Society for
Medical Anthropology and in 1994 the American Anthropological Association awarded him
its Distinguished Service Award. He was invited to the Center for Advanced Study in the
Behavioral Sciences in 1963. He often worked as a consultant for the Ford Foundation,
UNESCO, the U.S. Public Health Service, and several state departments of health.
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Benjamin Paul Memorial Resolution—continued...
Ben Paul was a loving father to his children and a caring husband to his wife Lois
Paul. He is survived by his son, Dr. Robert A. Paul of Atlanta, GA, his daughter Dr. Janice
C. Paul of Ann Arbor, MI, a brother Elias of Phoenix, AZ, a sister Fannie Zuckerberg of
Chicago, IL, a son-in-law Dr. William "Buzz" Alexander, a daughter-in-law Leslee Nadelson
Paul and two grandchildren, Eloise and Ari Paul.
Committee:
Jane F. Collier, Chair
Sylvia J. Yanagisako
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