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Coming of Age in Samoa, first published in 1928, is a book by Margaret Mead based upon the youth in Samoa and lightly relating to youth in America. Mead's findings seemed to show that youth in Samoa are taught to grow together and strengthen each other's confidence. As a result, their community is much more tightly knit than that of other cultures, and the individuals themselves are more emotionally secure. In contrast, American youth are taught to compete against one another, leaving them isolated within their own cliques. The book also put forward the thesis that teenagers are psychologically healthier if they engage in sex with multiple partners before marriage. 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...
Margaret Mead Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist. ...
Motto: E pluribus unum (1789 to 1956) (Latin: Out of Many, One) In God We Trust (1956 to present) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington, D.C. Largest city New York City Official language(s) None at federal level; English de facto Government • President • Vice President Federal Republic George...
The book was, and still is, highly controversial. Some claim that Mead's research was fabricated, and the National Catholic Register has argued that her findings were merely a projection of her own sexual beliefs and reflected her desire to eliminate restrictions on her own sexuality. [1]
Coming of Age in Samoa was listed as the "Worst Book of the 20th Century" by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in 2003.
Controversy
Derek Freeman, a New Zealander anthropologist, was inspired by Mead's work, and travelled to Samoa to follow up on her work. He held that Mead had been misled in the extreme by the two girls whom she spoke to, and at worst was fabricating her research from whole cloth. Harvard University Press published his book, Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and Unmaking of an Anthropological Myth in 1983, in which he outlined his case. For example: See Anthropology. ...
The Harvard University Press is a publishing house, a division of Harvard University, that is highly respected in academic publishing. ...
1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
- "In this and in his 1999 book, The Fateful Hoaxing of Margaret Mead, Freeman explores just how Mead had gotten it all so wrong. As he relates, Mead had dithered around Samoa aimlessly for months before starting her fieldwork. Hopelessly behind schedule, she frittered away much of this remaining time on an unrelated project. Finally, while traveling around the islands with two teenage girls, she had the opportunity to question them privately about their sex lives and those of their friends.
- Mead kept prodding the girls. She did not want to hear about traditional taboos or Christian restraints. She wanted to hear about frolicking on the beach. The girls had no idea what Mead was up to. They didn't know she was an anthropologist or what one even was. But what they did know and enjoy was the "recreational lying" common among Samoan girls. Eager to please, they proceeded to spin the kind of yarns that Mead wanted to hear. Pinching each other all the way, they filled Mead's head with wild tales of nocturnal liaisons under the palm trees.
- "She must have taken it seriously," one of the girls would say of Mead on videotape years later, "but I was only joking. As you know, Samoan girls are terrific liars when it comes to joking. But Margaret accepted our trumped up stories as though they were true." If challenged by Mead, the girls would not have hesitated to tell the truth, but Mead never questioned their stories. The girls, now mature women, swore on the Bible to the truth of what they told Freeman and his colleagues. "
However, it should be acknowledged that Freeman's account has been challenged as being ideologically driven to support his own theoretical viewpoint (sociobiology)(much like what Mead had been accussed of), and that considerable controversy remains over the veracity, or otherwise, of both Mead's and Freeman's account. Lowell Holmes completed a much less publicised restudy chronologically in between Mead and Freeman, and commented later about how "Mead was better able to identify with, and therefore establish rapport with, adolescents and young adults on issues of sexuality than either I (at age 29, married with a wife and child) or Freeman, ten years my senior". (Holmes, L.D. and Holmes, E.R, Samoan Village Then And Now, Harcourt Brace, 1992) Sociobiology is a synthesis of scientific disciplines that attempts to explain behaviour in all species by considering the evolutionary advantages of social behaviours. ...
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