Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but grew up in nearby Doylestown. His father was a university professor and social activist mother. She graduated from Barnard College in 1923 and received his doctorate from Columbia University in 1929. He became known in 1925 for his fieldwork in Polynesia. In 1926 he joined the American Museum of Natural History in New York, as an assistant director, eventually serving as director of Ethnology from 1946 to 1969. During World War II, he served as executive secretary of the Committee on Food Habits Council national Research. Moreover, he worked as an assistant professor at Columbia University since 1954. Following the example of her instructor Ruth Benedict, he concentrated his studies on child-rearing problems, personality and culture