|
"I have spent most of my life studying the lives of other peoples -- faraway peoples -- so that Americans might better understand themselves."
Margaret Mead was a world renowned anthropologist who offered much to the scientific knowledge of how human cultures develop. Her 44 books and thousands of articles have been well cataloged and documented so that we may continue to learn from her.
Margaret Mead was born in Philadelphia in 1901 in a Quaker family. Her father was an economics professor. Her mother, Emily Fogg Mead was a sociologist. Margaret began her studies at DePauw University but after a year transferred in order to study what was then a new science, anthropology, at Barnard University under Franz Boaz and his student, Ruth Benedict. She received her undergraduate degree from Barnard in 1923. She ultimately acquired a PhD from Columbia University in 1929.
Her first marriage was to Luther Cressman, a minister and archaeologist. That marriage ended in 1928 and she married Dr. Reo Fortune the same year. Together they wrote, "Growing Up In New Guinea", published in 1930. Mead worked with her third husband, British born Gregory Batesman, on a book called "Balanese Character" that was published in 1942.
At the age of 23, Dr. Mead undertook a field study in Samoa in the South Pacific, against Boaz's advice. The experience resulted in her writing of her highly popular book, "Coming Of Age In Samoa", published in 1928. This book remains a best seller. As a result of her Samoan studies she came to believe that adolescence need not be a time of upheaval, and that our society creates problems when we deny sexuality and try to hide it. She studied many southern Pacific native cultures and is largely responsible for the contents of the American Museum of Natural History's Pacific Peoples exhibit. Nonetheless she occasionally had difficulty observing native practices including cannibalism, infanticide and incest.
Mead took a woman's perspective into the field of anthropology. She was the first person to study child rearing practices and their effects on societies. Her theory of imprinting, a method through which she believed children learn, continues to be researched and studied today. She believed that the study of children was essential to understanding ourselves and to improving our futures.
She combined psychological sciences with anthropological field studies for the first time. She believed it was important to create a link between anthropology and other fields of science. She had a great deal to do with making this information available to the general public through her writings, lectures, radio interviews and television appearances, including a number of appearances on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. She was the first to use photography in anthropological field work.
Mead was an energetic spokesperson regarding human rights and social issues including women's rights, child development and education. She often testified before Congress and other government agencies regarding issues she believed to be important.
Her interests and writings spread across a vast range of topics, from spirituality to overpopulation. She worked in the Department of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History from 1926 through the end of her life, initially as assistant curator, then as associate curator and finally as curator. She was a professor of anthropology at Columbia starting in the year 1954, working with her old associate, Ruth Benedict. She wrote a book entitled "An Anthropologist At Work" about Benedict. It was published in 1959.
Margaret Mead died in 1978. She is a member of the National Women's Hall of Fame and received numerous other honors during her life time. She was depicted in the "Celebrate The Century" stamp set released by the Post Office in the 1920s. Since her death some of her conclusions have been called into question, but there is no doubt about her contributions to the science of anthropology and human understanding.
| 
