1. Margaret Mead
and the
Mead-Freeman Controversy

2. Margaret Mead
1901-1978
Student of Franz Boas at Cambridge, and later became a professor
Academic anthropologist
and ethnographer
Popular writer for Redbook and other magazines , popularizing the field of anthropology
3. Anthropology demands the open-mindedness with which one must look and listen, record in astonishment and wonder that which one would not have been able to guess.
Margaret Mead
4. Boasian Thought
Committed student
of Franz Boas
Had a personal and academic relationship with Ruth Benedict
Strong views of
cultural determinism
Learned a scientific approach and methodology in ethnographies
5. Boas proposed
the ultimate question:
Is culture responsible for shaping an individual,
or is nature?
Mead believed the answers would be in studying the behavior of children and adolescents, but already had a biased opinion.
6. American Samoa 1925-1926

Studied the sexual behaviors and attitudes of adolescent girls

7. Found them to be sexually promiscuous and free 8. Noted that teenagers could move freely between homes of relatives when conflict arose 9. Children gradually acquire responsibilities of adulthood, making transition easy.