Social Theorists
Margaret Mead
Anthropology
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American cultural anthropologist whose extended fieldwork in the South Pacific, especially her 1928 study of adolescence in Samoa, made her the best known anthropologist of her generation and a leading public voice for cultural relativism in debates about nature versus nurture; her conclusions about Samoan adolescence were later disputed by Derek Freeman, a dispute scholarship has never fully settled.
Facts
Birth DateSourced to the subject's own account Birth YearSourced to the subject's own account Death DateSourced to the subject's own account Death YearSourced to the subject's own account BirthplaceSourced to the subject's own accountPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. 1 Death PlaceSourced to the subject's own account Nationality / CultureSourced to the subject's own account Defining ContributionSourced to the subject's own accountPioneered sustained participant-observation fieldwork among Pacific Island societies and used it to argue that adolescence and gender roles are shaped by culture rather than fixed by biology, carrying that argument into American public debate far beyond academic anthropology. 1 Notable WorkSourced to the subject's own accountComing of Age in Samoa (1928) 2 Cross-Tradition Connections
Practices Studied
Mead is the study's author and fieldworker, not merely a later commentator on it.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Margaret Mead
WikipediaIntroduction, descriptionQuote, Introduction, description
Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 - November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist.
1. Wikipedia: Margaret Mead
WikipediaMethods section, participant observationQuote, Methods section, participant observation
As an ethnographer, Mead's primary research method was participant observation through living in communities for extended periods of time.
2. Wikipedia: Coming of Age in Samoa
WikipediaEducational problems: American and Samoan contrasts, notable workQuote, Educational problems: American and Samoan contrasts, notable work
Mead concluded that the passage from childhood to adulthood (adolescence) in Samoa was a smooth transition and not marked by the emotional or psychological distress, anxiety, or confusion seen in the United States.
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