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Coming of age is a young person's transition from childhood to adulthood. The age at which this transition takes place varies in society, as does the nature of the transition.^[1] It can be a simple legal convention or can be part of a ritual, as practiced by many societies. In the past, and in some societies today, such a change are associated with the age of sexual maturity (Early-Adolescence); in others, it is associated with an age of religious responsibility. Particularly in western societies, modern legal conventions which stipulate points in late adolescence or early adulthood (most commonly 16-21 when adolescents are generally no longer considered minors and are granted the full rights of an adult) are the focus of the transition. In either case, many cultures retain ceremonies to confirm the coming of age, and significant benefits come with the change. (See also rite of passage.)

Coming of age is often a topic of fiction. In literature, a novel which deals with coming of age is called a bildungsroman. Similar stories told in film are called coming-of-age films.

Religion[link]

Baha'i[link]

Turning 15, the "age of maturity," as the Baha'i faith terms it is a time when a child is considered spiritually mature and is responsible stating, on his/her own behalf whether or not he/she wishes to remain a member of the Baha'i community. Declared Baha'is are expected to begin observing certain Baha'i laws, such as obligatory prayer and fasting.^[2]

Buddhism[link]

Theravada boys, typically just under the age of 20 years old, undergo a Shinbyu ceremony, where they are initiated into the Temple as Novice Monks (Samanera). They will typically stay in the monastery for between 3 days and 3 years, most commonly for one 3-month "rainy season retreat" (vassa), held annually from late July to early October. During this period the boys experience the rigors of an orthodox Buddhist monastic lifestyle - a lifestyle that involves celibacy, formal voluntary poverty, absolute nonviolence, and daily fasting between noon and the following day's sunrise.

Depending on how long they stay, the boys will learn various chants and recitations in the canonical language (Pali) - typically the Buddha's more famous discourses (Suttas) and verses (Gathas) - as well as Buddhist ethics and higher monastic discipline (Vinaya). If they stay long enough and conditions permit, they may be tutored in the meditative practices (bhavana, or dhyana) that are at the heart of Buddhism's program for the self-development of alert tranquillity (samadhi), wisdom (prajna), and divine mental states (brahmavihara).

After living the novitiate monastic life for some time, the boy, now considered to have "come of age," will either take higher ordination as a fully ordained monk (a bhikkhu) or will (more often) return to lay life. In Southeast Asian countries, where most pracitioners of Theravada Buddhism reside, women will often refuse to marry a man who has not ordained temporarily as a Samanera in this way at some point in his life. Men who have completed this Samanera ordination and have returned to lay life are considered primed for adult married life and are described in the Thai language and the Khmer language by terms which roughly translate as "cooked," "finished," or "cooled off" in English, as in meal preparation/consumption. Thus, one's monastic training is seen to have prepared one properly for familial, social, and civic duty and/or one's passions and unruliness of the boy are seen to have "cooled down" enough for him to be of use to a woman as a proper man.

Christianity[link]

In many Christian churches, a young person celebrates his/her Coming of Age with the Sacrament of Confirmation. Eastern Orthodoxy, which gives Confirmation to infants, directly after baptism, is an important exception. This is usually done by the Bishop laying his hands upon the foreheads of the young person (usually between the ages of 12 to 15 years), and marking them with the seal of the Holy Spirit.

In Christian denominations that practice Believer's Baptism (baptism by voluntary decision, as opposed to baptism in early infancy), the ritual can be carried out after the age of accountability has arrived. Some traditions withhold the rite of Holy Communion from those not yet at the age of accountability, on the grounds that children do not understand what the sacrament means. In some denominations, full membership in the Church, if not bestowed at birth, often must wait until the age of accountability and frequently is granted only after a period of preparation known as catechesis. The time of innocence before one has the ability to understand truly the laws of God and that God sees one as innocent is also seen as applying to individuals who suffer from a mental disability which prevents them from ever reaching a time when they are capable of understanding the laws of God. These individuals are thus seen as existing in a perpetual state of innocence by the grace of God.

Ancient Greek religion[link]

The process of coming of age usually began right at child birth. The child would receive gifts, riddles, and symbols of adulthood. In certain states in Ancient Greece, such as Sparta and Crete, adolescent boys were expected to enter into a mentoring relationship with an adult man, in which they would be taught skills pertaining to adult life, such as hunting, martial arts, and fine arts.

Hinduism[link]

In Hinduism coming of age generally signifies that a boy or girl are mature enough to understand his responsibility towards family and society. Hinduism also has the sacred thread ceremony for Dvija (twice-born) boys that marks their coming of age to do religious ceremonies. Women often celebrate their coming to age by having a ceremony. This ceremony includes dressing them with sari, and announcing their maturity to the community.

Ifá (Yoruba mysticism)[link]

In the traditional faith of the Yoruba people of West Africa and the myriad of New World religions that it subsequently birthed, men and women are often initiated to the service of one of the hundreds of subsidiary spirits that serve the Orisha Olodumare, the tribe's conception of the Almighty God. The mystic links that are forged by way of these initiations, which typically occur at puberty (although they could in truth be performed as and when the Ifá oracle demands if they have not already been done at a period beyond this stage), are the conduits that are used by adherents to attempt to achieve what can be seen as the equivalent of the Buddhist enlightenment by way of a combination of personalized meditations, reincarnations and spirit possessions.

Islam[link]

Children are not required to perform any obligatory acts of Islamic Teachings prior to reaching the age of puberty, although they should be encouraged to begin praying at the age of seven. Before reaching puberty it is recommended to pray in obeisance to Allah and to exemplify Islamic customs, but as soon as one exhibits any characteristic of puberty, that person is required to perform the prayers and other obligations of Islam.^[3]

Judaism[link]

In the Jewish faith, boys reach religious maturity at the age of thirteen and are bar mitzvahed ("bar mitzvah" means "son of the commandment"). Girls mature earlier, and are bat mitzvahed ("bat mitvzah" means "daughter of the commandment) at twelve. Once the ritual is done, the new men and women are looked upon as adults and are expected to uphold the Jewish commandments and laws. Also, in religious court they are adults and can marry with their new title of an adult.

Sikhism[link]

In Sikhism, when one reaches the appropriate age of maturity, Amrit is consumed in a ceremony called Amrit Sanchar or Khanda-ki-Pahul

Non-religious Traditions[link]

In some countries Humanist or freethinker organisations have arranged courses or camps for non-religious adolescents, in which they can study or work on ethical, social and personal topics important for adult life, followed by a formal rite of passage comparable to the Christian Confirmation. Some of these ceremonies are even called "civil confirmations". The purpose of these ceremonies is to offer a festive ritual for those youngsters, who do not believe in any religion, but nevertheless want to mark their transition from childhood to adulthood.

Cultural Rituals Exclusive to Nations[link]

Africa[link]

Many African cultures share the same structure to their coming of age process. Adolescences are isolated from their homes, family and friends, for weeks, to months at a time. Within this time frame, they are taught the ways of society including mannerisms, religious teachings, seduction, and law. For the new women of society, they must undergo "female circumcision". This can be broken down into three different procedures, "clitoridectomy", "excision", and "infibulation". For the past 20 years, "The World Health Organization" has been trying to promote different types of rituals to avoid such a dangerous and taboo procedure.

Apache Tribe[link]

Apache boys and girls, when they come of age would undergo a four day ritual to achieve their adulthood. This process is called "na'ii'ees". For the women, it is a grueling task involving multiple hours of dancing, prayer, and lessons of self esteem, sexuality, and healing.

Australia, NZ, UK, Ireland, Poland, Ukraine and Scandinavia[link]

The coming of age in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Ukraine, the Republic of Poland and the Scandinavian Countries are celebrated at either 18 or 21. As the age of legal majority, being 18 legally enables one to vote, purchase tobacco and alcohol (wine in Norway), get married without parental consent and sign contracts. In comparison, turning 21 has few legal effects (except Poland & Ukraine, where all the laws are applied after 18). Eighteenth or twenty-first birthday celebrations typically take the form of an extravagant party; presents given are often higher than usual value, and champagne may be served, as at other formal celebrations. There are few set ceremonies or rituals to be observed, although if the celebrant is a male he may be challenged to consume a yard glass which is typically full of beer.

Drinking plays a large part in 18th birthdays, as it is the age where one can legally purchase alcohol. As such, many 18th birthdays are celebrated with a large party with friends, with drinking as a central motif. Despite 18 being the legal age of adulthood, most do not immediately take on the roles of adult, such as moving out of home or gaining full-time employment, instead studying or working as an apprentice. At New Zealand and Australian 21st birthdays, it is customary for family members to assemble embarrassing photos, videos or other childhood memorabilia to display at a celebration and for a good friend to give an equally embarrassing speech.

China[link]

Historically, the Confucian coming of age ceremony has been the "Guan Li" for men and the "Ji Li" for women. The age is usually around 20 and during the ceremony, the person obtains a style name. These ceremonies are now rarely practiced in China, but there has been a resurgence, especially from those who are sympathetic to the Hanfu Movement.

Latin America[link]

In some Latin American countries, when a woman reaches the age of 15, her relatives usually organize a very expensive celebration. It is usually a large party, called a Quinceañera in Spanish speaking countries and Baile de Debutantes in Brazil.

North America[link]

In the United States, Mexico and in Canada, when a child reaches the age of 16 he or she is allowed to drive and sometimes receives the responsibility of owning their own car. Girls' 16th Birthdays are traditionally called Sweet Sixteens. Depending on the family's religion or family background, there may be a ceremony signifying their coming of age. Some parents are very good about teaching their children the mysteries of life and proper values, whereas others let the schools and experience handle that for them, and many discover life's values through music.

Spain[link]

In Spain during the 19th century, there was a civilian coming of age bound to the compulsory military service. The quintos were the boys of the village that reached the age of eligibility for military service (18 years), thus forming the quinta of a year. In rural Spain, the mili was the first and sometimes the only experience of life away from family. In the days before their departure, the quintos knocked every door to ask for food and drink. They held a common festive meal with what they gathered and sometimes painted some graffiti reading "Vivan los quintos del año" as a memorial of their leaving their youth. Years later, the quintos of the same year could still hold yearly meals to remember times past. By the end of the 20th century, the rural exodus, the diffusion of city customs and the loss of prestige of military service changed the relevance of quintos parties. In some places, the party included the village girls of the same age, thus becoming less directly relevant to military service. In others, the tradition was simply lost.

Japan[link]

Since 1948, the age of majority in Japan has been 20; persons under 20 are not permitted to smoke, drink, or vote. Coming-of-age ceremonies, known as seijin shiki, are held on the second Monday of January. At the ceremony, all of the men and women participating are brought to a government building and listen to many speakers, similar to a graduation ceremony. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the government gives the new adults money.

Papua New Guinea[link]

Kovave is a ceremony to initiate Papua New Guinea boys into adult society. It involves dressing up in a conical hat which has long strands of leaves hanging from the edge, down to below the waist. The name Kovave is also used to describe the head-dress.

Vietnam[link]

During the feudal period, the coming of age was celebrated at 15 for noblemen. Nowadays, the age is 18 for girls and 20 for boys.

Bali[link]

In Bali, the coming of age ceremony is supposed to take place after a girl's first menstrual period or a boy's voice breaks. However, due to expense, it is often delayed until later. The upper canines are filed down slightly to symbolize the effacing of the individual's "wild" nature.

Pygmies[link]

In the rite of initiation of Baka Pygmies, the Spirit of the Forest ritually kills the boys to propitiate their rebirth as men. The Italian anthropologist Mauro Campagnoli took part in this secret rite of men's initiation in order to better understand its meaning. He became a member of a baka patrilinear clan and completed his trans-cultural coming of age.

Korea[link]

In Korea, Monday of the third week of May is "coming-of-age day". Also the choice to marry, to drink alcohol, to smoke, to vote, and to drive is when a citizen is 19 years old (mostly 20 in Korean age).

As a recent tradition affected by the Western's, on that day people are usually to receive three gifts. Flowers, perfume and a kiss. There had been a traditional coming of age ceremony since before Goryeo dynasty, but it has mostly disappeared now. When boys or girls are between the ages of fifteen and twenty, boys wear gat, Korean traditional hat made of bamboo and horsehair, and girls do their hair in chignon with binyeo, Korean traditional ornamental hairpin.

Philippines[link]

In the Philippines, a popular coming of age celebration for 18 year-old women is the debut. It is normally a formal affair, with a strict dress code such as a coat and tie for the upper-middle and upper classes, and usually has a theme or color scheme that is related to the dress code. The débutante traditionally chooses for her entourage "18 Roses", who are 18 special men or boys in the girl's life such as boyfriends, relatives and brothers, and "18 Candles", who are the Roses' female counterparts. Each presents a rose or candle then delivers a short speech about the debutante. The Roses sometimes dance with the débutante before presenting their flower and speech, with the last being her father or boyfriend. Other variations exist, such as 18 Treasures (of any gender; gives a present instead of a candle or flower) or other types of flowers aside from roses being given, but the significance of "18" is almost always retained.

Filipino men, on the other hand, celebrate their debut on their 21st birthday. There is no traditionally set program marking this event, and celebrations differ from family to family. Both men and women may opt not to hold a debut at all.

Professional Initiatory Rituals[link]

Academia[link]

Medical School[link]

White coat ceremony

University[link]

In many universities of Europe, South America and India, first year students are made to undergo tests or humiliation before being accepted as students. Perhaps the oldest of these is "Raisin Monday"^[4] at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. It is still practiced. A senior student would take a new student, a "bejant" or "bejantine" under his/her wing and show them round the university. In gratitude, the bejant would give the senior student a pound of raisins. In turn this led to bejants being given receipts in Latin. If a bejant failed to produce the receipt, he could be thrown into a fountain. The word bejant derives from "bec jaune" (a yellow beak, or fledgling).

Universities in Chile follow an annual ritual called "Mechoneo" (the act of pulling somebody's hair). First year students are initiated by theatrical "punishment". Freshmen are tied together while upperclassmen throw them eggs, flour, water, etc. Some universities have traditional ways of initiating freshmen.

Fraternities and Sororities[link]

Fraternities and sororities have different processes for associate members, also known as pledges, to become a member. It usually takes place with one or more ritual that is specific to that organization.

Printing Industry[link]

Among apprentices, the step from apprentice to journeyman was often marked by some ceremonial humiliation. Among printers this lasted until the twentieth century. The unfortunate young man would be "banged out" by being covered in offal.

Japanese corporate entrance ceremony[link]

In large Japanese corporations, all employees who enter the company from college or high school in the same year attend an entrance ceremony. Attendees are required to arrive early, sit in assigned seats, and wear company-approved clothing with an approved haircut. A member of the group is chosen to give a speech, and everyone sings the company song.

See also[link]

References[link]

1. ^ New York Times
2. ^ [1], http://www.bahai.us/turning-15
3. ^ "Islamic obligations at puberty". IslamWeb. October 25, 2001. http://www.islamweb.net/ver2/Fatwa/ShowFatwa.php?lang=E&Id=83431&Option=FatwaId. Retrieved October 12, 2009. 
4. ^ Saint-andrews.co.uk

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (August 2011)

Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead, 1948
Born	(1901-12-16)December 16, 1901 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
Died	November 15, 1978(1978-11-15) (aged 76) New York City
Education	Barnard College (1923) M.A., Columbia University (1924) Ph.D., Columbia University (1929)
Occupation	Anthropologist
Spouse	Luther Cressman (1923–1928) Reo Fortune (1928–1935) Gregory Bateson (1936–1950)
Children	Mary Catherine Bateson (b. 1939)

Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist, who was frequently a featured writer and speaker in the mass media throughout the 1960s and 1970s.^[1] She earned her bachelor degree at Barnard College in New York City, and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University.

She was both a popularizer of the insights of anthropology into modern American and Western culture and a respected, if controversial, academic anthropologist. Her reports about the attitudes towards sex in South Pacific and Southeast Asian traditional cultures amply informed the 1960s sexual revolution. Mead was a champion of broadened sexual mores within a context of traditional western religious life.

An Anglican Christian, she played a considerable part in the drafting of the 1979 American Episcopal Book of Common Prayer.^[2]:347-348

Birth, early family life, and education[link]

Mead, the first of five children, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but raised in Doylestown. Her father, Edward Sherwood Mead, was a professor of finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and her mother, Emily (Fogg) Mead,^[3] was a sociologist who studied Italian immigrants.^[4] Her sister Katharine (1906–1907) died at the age of nine months. This was a traumatic event for Mead, who had named this baby, and thoughts of her lost sister permeated her daydreams for many years.^[2] Her family moved frequently, so her early education alternated between home-schooling and traditional schools.^[4] Born into a family of varying religious outlooks, she searched for a form of religion that gave an expression of the faith that she had been formally acquainted with, Christianity.^[5] In doing so, she found the rituals of the Episcopal Church to fit the expression of religion she was seeking.^[5] Margaret studied one year, 1919, at DePauw University, then transferred to Barnard College where she earned her bachelor's degree in 1923.

She studied with professor Franz Boas and Dr. Ruth Benedict at Columbia University before earning her Master's in 1924.^[6] Mead set out in 1925 to do fieldwork in Polynesia.^[7] In 1926, she joined the American Museum of Natural History, New York City, as assistant curator.^[8] She received her Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1929.^[9]

Both of Mead's surviving sisters were married to well-known men. Elizabeth Mead (1909–1983), an artist and teacher, married cartoonist William Steig, and Priscilla Mead (1911–1959) married author Leo Rosten. Mead also had a brother, Richard, who became a professor.

Mead's observation skills came from her grandmother and her mother. When Mead was a child they would observe and record her actions in a notebook. Mead realized the importance of observing and recording important findings.

Personal life[link]

Mead was married three times. Her first husband (1923–1928) was Luther Cressman, a theology student at the time who eventually became an anthropologist. Mead dismissively characterized their union as "my student marriage" in Blackberry Winter, a sobriquet with which Cressman took vigorous issue. Her second husband was New Zealander Reo Fortune, a Cambridge graduate (1928–1935). As an anthropologist, his Sorcerers of Dobu remains the locus classicus of eastern Papuan anthropology, but he is best known instead for his Fortunate number theory.

Her third and longest-lasting marriage (1936–1950) was to Englishman Gregory Bateson, also a Cambridge graduate, with whom she had a daughter, Mary Catherine Bateson, who would also become an anthropologist. Her pediatrician was Benjamin Spock early in his career. Spock's subsequent writings on child rearing incorporated some of Mead's own practices and beliefs acquired from her ethnological field observations which she shared with him; in particular, breastfeeding on the baby's demand rather than a schedule.^[10] She readily acknowledged that Gregory Bateson was the husband she loved the most. She was devastated when he left her, and she remained his loving friend ever after, keeping his photograph by her bedside wherever she traveled, including beside her hospital deathbed.^[2]

Mead also had an exceptionally close relationship with Ruth Benedict, one of her instructors. In her memoir about her parents, With a Daughter's Eye, Mary Catherine Bateson implies that the relationship between Benedict and Mead was partly sexual.^[11] While Margaret Mead never openly identified herself as lesbian or bisexual, the details of her relationship with Benedict have led others to so identify her. In her writings she proposed that it is to be expected that an individual's sexual orientation may evolve throughout life.^[11]

She spent her last years in a close personal and professional collaboration with anthropologist Rhoda Metraux, with whom she lived from 1955 until her death in 1978. Letters between the two published in 2006 with the permission of Mead's daughter^[12] clearly express a romantic relationship.

Career and later life[link]

During World War II, Mead served as executive secretary of the National Research Council's Committee on Food Habits. She served as curator of ethnology at the American Museum of Natural History from 1946 to 1969. She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1948.^[13] She taught at The New School and Columbia University, where she was an adjunct professor from 1954 to 1978. She was a professor of anthropology and chair of the Division of Social Sciences at Fordham University's Lincoln Center campus from 1968 to 1970, founding their anthropology department. Following Ruth Benedict's example, Mead focused her research on problems of child rearing, personality, and culture.^[14] She served as president of the American Anthropological Association in 1960. She held various positions in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, notably president in 1975 and chair of the executive committee of the board of directors in 1976.^[15]

Mead was featured on two record albums published by Folkways Records. The first, released in 1959, An Interview With Margaret Mead, explored the topics of morals and anthropology. In 1971, she was included in a compilation of talks by prominent women, But the Women Rose, Vol.2: Voices of Women in American History.^[16]

She is credited with the pluralization of the term "semiotics." ^[17]

In later life, Mead was a mentor to many young anthropologists and sociologists, including Jean Houston.^[2]

Mead died of pancreatic cancer on November 15, 1978.

Work[link]

[edit] Coming of Age in Samoa

Samoan girl, c. 1896

In the foreword to Coming of Age in Samoa, Mead's advisor, Franz Boas, wrote of its significance:

Courtesy, modesty, good manners, conformity to definite ethical standards are universal, but what constitutes courtesy, modesty, very good manners, and definite ethical standards is not universal. It is instructive to know that standards differ in the most unexpected ways.^[18]

Mead's findings suggested that the community ignores both boys and girls until they are about 15 or 16. Before then, children have no social standing within the community. Mead also found that marriage is regarded as a social and economic arrangement where wealth, rank, and job skills of the husband and wife are taken into consideration.

In 1983, five years after Mead had died, New Zealand anthropologist Derek Freeman, published Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and Unmaking of an Anthropological Myth, in which he challenged Mead's major findings about sexuality in Samoan society. Freeman's book was controversial in its turn: later in 1983 the American Anthropological Association declared it to be "poorly written, unscientific, irresponsible and misleading."^[19]

In 1999 Freeman published another book, The Fateful Hoaxing of Margaret Mead: A Historical Analysis of Her Samoan Research, including previously unavailable material. Most anthropologists have since been highly critical of Freeman's arguments.

A frequent criticism of Freeman is that he regularly misrepresented Mead's research and views.^[20][21] In a 2009 evaluation of the debate, anthropologist Paul Shankman concluded that:

There is now a large body of criticism of Freeman's work from a number of perspectives in which Mead, Samoa, and anthropology appear in a very different light than they do in Freeman's work. Indeed, the immense significance that Freeman gave his critique looks like "much ado about nothing" to many of his critics.^[20]

In 1996 Martin Orans examined Mead's notes preserved at the Library of Congress, and credits her for leaving all of her recorded data available to the general public. Orans concludes that Freeman's basic criticisms, that Mead was duped by ceremonial virgin Fa'apua'a Fa'amu (who later swore to Freeman that she had played a joke on Mead) were false for several reasons: first, Mead was well aware of the forms and frequency of Samoan joking; second, she provided a careful account of the sexual restrictions on ceremonial virgins that correspond's to Fa'apua'a Fa'auma'a's account to Freeman, and third, that Mead's notes make clear that she had reached her conclusions about Samoan sexuality before meeting Fa'aupa'a Fa'amu. He therefore concludes, contrary to Freeman, that Mead was never the victim of a hoax. As Orans points out Mead's data support several different conclusions, and that Mead's conclusions hinge on an interpretive, rather than positivist, approach to culture. Evaluating Mead's work in Samoa from a positivist stance, Martin Orans' assessment of the controversy was that Mead did not formulate her research agenda in scientific terms, and that "her work may properly be damned with the harshest scientific criticism of all, that it is 'not even wrong'".^[22]

[edit] Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies

Another influential book by Mead was Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies. This became a major cornerstone of the feminist movement, since it claimed that females are dominant in the Tchambuli (now spelled Chambri) Lake region of the Sepik basin of Papua New Guinea (in the western Pacific) without causing any special problems. The lack of male dominance may have been the result of the Australian administration's outlawing of warfare. According to contemporary research, males are dominant throughout Melanesia (although some believe that female witches have special powers). Others have argued that there is still much cultural variation throughout Melanesia, and especially in the large island of New Guinea. Moreover, anthropologists often overlook the significance of networks of political influence among females. The formal male-dominated institutions typical of some areas of high population density were not, for example, present in the same way in Oksapmin, West Sepik Province, a more sparsely populated area. Cultural patterns there were different from, say, Mt. Hagen. They were closer to those described by Mead.

Mead stated that the Arapesh people, also in the Sepik, were pacifists, although she noted that they do on occasion engage in warfare. Her observations about the sharing of garden plots amongst the Arapesh, the egalitarian emphasis in child rearing, and her documentation of predominantly peaceful relations among relatives are very different from the "big man" displays of dominance that were documented in more stratified New Guinea cultures — e.g., by Andrew Strathern. They are a different cultural pattern.

In brief, her comparative study revealed a full range of contrasting gender roles:

• "Among the Arapesh, both men and women were peaceful in temperament and neither men nor women made war.
• "Among the Mundugumor, the opposite was true: both men and women were warlike in temperament.
• "And the Tchambuli were different from both. The men 'primped' and spent their time decorating themselves while the women worked and were the practical ones — the opposite of how it seemed in early 20th century America."^{[citation needed]}

Other research areas[link]

Mead has been credited with persuading the American Jewish Committee to sponsor a project to study European Jewish villages, shtetls, in which a team of researchers would conduct mass interviews with Jewish immigrants living in New York City. The resulting book, widely cited for decades, allegedly created the Jewish mother stereotype, a mother intensely loving but controlling to the point of smothering, and engendering guilt in her children through the suffering she professed to undertake for their sakes.^[23]

She also cofounded the Parapsychological Association, a group advocating for the advancement of parapsychology and psychical research.

Criticism[link]

Derek Freeman, an anthropologist who spent many years among the Samoans, was critical of Mead's findings that culture is responsible for the disturbances of adolescence, and that Samoans had a significantly different experience. He wrote:

"It is with the scientific adequacy of Mead's picture of Samoan society that I shall be concerned with from now on, for to the extent that this picture is defective, Samoa ceases to be a negative instance and Mead's central conclusion that culture, or nurture, is all-important in the determination of adolescent and other aspects of human behavior is revealed as ungrounded and invalid."

Martin Orans, another anthropologist who worked in Samoa, wrote:

"Occasionally a message carried by the media finds an audience so eager to receive it that it is willing to suspend all critical judgment and adopt the message as its own. So it was with Margaret Mead's celebrated 'Coming of Age in Samoa'."

Mead worked for the RAND Corporation, a U.S. Air Force military funded private research organization, from 1948 to 1950 to study Russian culture and attitudes toward authority.^[24]

Legacy[link]

On January 19, 1979, President Jimmy Carter announced that he was awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously to Mead. UN Ambassador Andrew Young presented the award to Mead's daughter at a special program honoring Mead's contributions, sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History, where she spent many years of her career. The citation read:^[25]

"Margaret Mead was both a student of civilization and an exemplar of it. To a public of millions, she brought the central insight of cultural anthropology: that varying cultural patterns express an underlying human unity. She mastered her discipline, but she also transcended it. Intrepid, independent, plain spoken, fearless, she remains a model for the young and a teacher from whom all may learn."

The 2006 music video for "If Everyone Cared" by Nickelback ends with her quote: "Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

In addition, there are several schools named after Margaret Mead in the United States: a junior high school in Elk Grove Village, Illinois,^[26] an elementary school in Sammamish, Washington^[27] and another in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York.^[28]

See also[link]

Systems science portal

• Elsie Clews Parsons
• Tim Asch
• Visual anthropology
• Zora Neale Hurston

Publications by Mead[link]

As a sole author

• Coming of Age in Samoa (1928) ISBN 0-688-05033-
• Growing Up In New Guinea (1930)
• The Changing Culture of an Indian Tribe (1932)
• Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935)
• And Keep Your Powder Dry: An Anthropologist Looks at America (1942)
• Male and Female (1949) ISBN 0-688-14676-7
• New Lives for Old: Cultural Transformation in Manus, 1928-1953 (1956)
• People and Places (1959; a book for young readers)
• Continuities in Cultural Evolution (1964)
• Culture and Commitment (1970)
• Blackberry Winter: My Earlier Years (1972; autobiography) ISBN 0-317-60065-6

As editor or coauthor

• Cultural Patterns and Technical Change, editor (1953)
• Primitive Heritage: An Anthropological Anthology, edited with Nicholas Calas (1953)
• An Anthropologist at Work, editor (1959, reprinted 1966; a volume of Ruth Benedict's writings)
• The Study of Culture At A Distance, edited with Rhoda Metraux, 1953
• Themes in French Culture, with Rhoda Metraux, 1954
• The Wagon and the Star: A Study of American Community Initiative co-authored with Muriel Whitbeck Brown, 1966
• A Rap on Race, with James Baldwin, 1971
• A Way of Seeing, with Rhoda Metraux, 1975

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Acciaioli, Gregory, ed. (1983). "Fact and Context in Etnography: The Samoa Controversy (special edition)". Canberra Anthropology 6 (1): 1–97. ISSN 0314-9099. http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=g919276691. 
• Appell, George (1984). "Freeman's Refutation of Mead's Coming of Age in Samoa: The Implications for Anthropological Inquiry". Eastern Anthropology 37: 183–214. http://gnappell.org/articles/freeman.htm. 
• Bateson, Mary Catherine. (1984) With a Daughter's Eye: A Memoir of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, New York: William Morrow. ISBN 0-688-03962-6
• Brady, Ivan. (1991). "The Samoa Reader: Last Word or Lost Horizon?" (PDF). Current Anthropology 32 (4): 263–282. JSTOR 2743829. http://www.oswego.edu/~brady/library%20items/samoa.pdf. 
• Caffey, Margaret M., and Patricia A. Francis, eds. (2006). To Cherish the Life of the World: Selected Letters of Margaret Mead. New York: Basic Books.
• Caton, Hiram, ed. (1990) The Samoa Reader: Anthropologists Take Stock, University Press of America. ISBN 0-8191-7720-2
• Feinberg, Richard (1988). "Margaret Mead and Samoa: Coming of Age in Fact and Fiction". American Anthropologist 90: 656–663. DOI:10.1525/aa.1988.90.3.02a00080. 
• Foerstel, Leonora, and Angela Gilliam, eds. (1992). Confronting the Margaret Mead Legacy: Scholarship, Empire and the South Pacific. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
• Freeman, Derek. (1983) Margaret Mead and Samoa, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-54830-2
• Freeman, Derek. (1999) The Fateful Hoaxing of Margaret Mead: A Historical Analysis of Her Samoan Research[1], Boulder, CO: Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-3693-7
• Goldfrank, Esther Schiff (1983). "Another View. Margaret and Me". Ethnohistory 30 (1): 1–14. DOI:10.2307/481499. JSTOR 481499. 
• Holmes, Lowell D. (1987). Quest for the Real Samoa: the Mead/Freeman Controversy and Beyond. South Hadley, MA: Bergin and Garvey.
• Howard, Jane. (1984). Margaret Mead: A Life, New York: Simon and Schuster.
• Keeley, Lawrence (1996). War Before Civilization: the Myth of the Peaceful Savage (Oxford University Press) ISBN 0-19-511912-6
• Lapsley, Hilary. (1999). Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict: The Kinship of Women. University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 1-55849-181-3
• Leacock, Eleanor (1988). "Anthropologists in Search of a Culture: Margaret Mead, Derek Freeman and All the Rest of Us". Central Issues in Anthropology 8 (1): 3–20. DOI:10.1525/cia.1988.8.1.3. 
• Levy, Robert (1984). "Mead, Freeman, and Samoa: The Problem of Seeing Things as They Are". Ethos 12: 85–92. DOI:10.1525/eth.1984.12.1.02a00060. 
• Lutkehaus, Nancy C. (2008). "Margaret Mead: The Making of an American Icon." Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-00941-4
• Mageo, Jeannette (1988). "Malosi: A Psychological Exploration of Mead's and Freeman's Work and of Samoan Aggression". Pacific Studies 11 (2): 25–65. http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/u?/PacificStudies,860. 
• Marshall, Mac. (1993). "The Wizard from Oz Meets the Wicked Witch of the East: Freeman, Mead, and Ethnographic Authority". American Ethnologist 20 (3): 604–617. DOI:10.1525/ae.1993.20.3.02a00080. 

• Mead, Margaret (1972). Blackberry Winter: My Earlier Years. New York: William Morrow. ISBN 0-688-00051-7. 
• Mead, Margaret. 1977. The Future as Frame for the Present. Audio recording of a lecture delivered July 11, 1977.
• Metraux, Rhoda (1980). "Margaret Mead. A Biographical Sketch". American Anthropologist 82 (2): 262–269. DOI:10.1525/aa.1980.82.2.02a00010. JSTOR 675870. 
• Nardi, Bonnie; Mead, Margaret; Freeman, Derek (1984). "The Height of Her Powers: Margaret Mead's Samoa". Feminist Studies 10 (2): 323–337. DOI:10.2307/3177870. JSTOR 3177870. 
• Moore, Jerry D. (2004). Visions of Culture: An Introduction to Anthropological Theories and Theorists. Rowman Altamira. p. 105. ISBN 0-7591-0411-5. 
• Patience, Allan, and Josephy Smith (1987). "Derek Freeman in Samoa: The Making and Unmaking of a Biobehavioral Myth". American Anthropologist 88: 157–162. DOI:10.1525/aa.1986.88.1.02a00160. 
• Paxman, David B. (1988). "Freeman, Mead, and the Eighteenth-Century Controversy over Polynesian Society". Pacific Studies 11 (3): 1–19. http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/u?/PacificStudies,879. 
• Pinker, Steven A. (1997). "How the Mind Works" ISBN 978-0-393-04535-2
• Sandall, Roger. (2001) The Culture Cult: Designer Tribalism and Other Essays. ISBN 0-8133-3863-8
• Scheper-Hughes, Nancy (1984). "The Margaret Mead Controversy: Culture, Biology, and Anthropological Inquiry". Human Organization 43 (1): 85–93. http://sfaa.metapress.com/openurl.asp?genre=article&issn=0018-7259&volume=43&issue=1&spage=85. 
• Shankman, Paul (1996). "The History of Samoan Sexual Conduct and the Mead-Freeman Controversy". American Anthropologist 98 (3): 555–567. DOI:10.1525/aa.1996.98.3.02a00090. 
• Shankman, Paul (2009). The Trashing of Margaret Mead: Anatomy of an Anthropological Controversy. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-299-23454-6. 
• Shore, Brad. (1982) Sala'ilua: A Samoan Mystery. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Stassinos, Elizabeth (1998). "Response to Visweswaren, 'Race and the culture of anthropology'". American Anthropologist 100 (4): 981–983. DOI:10.1525/aa.1998.100.4.981. 
• Stassinos, Elizabeth (2009). "An Early Case of Personality: Ruth Benedict's Autobiographical Fragment and the Case of the Biblical "Boaz"". Histories of Anthropology Annual 5: 28–51. DOI:10.1353/haa.0.0063. ISSN 1557-637X. 
• Virginia, Mary E. (2003). Benedict, Ruth (1887–1948). DISCovering U.S. History online edition, Detroit: Gale.
• Young, R.E., and S. Juan. (1985). "Freeman's Margaret Mead Myth: The Ideological Virginity of Anthropologists". Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology 21 (1): 64–81. DOI:10.1177/144078338502100104. 

External links[link]

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Margaret Mead

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Margaret Mead

• Creative Intelligence: Female ("The Silent Revolution: Creative Man In Contemporary Society" Talk at UC Berkeley, 1962 (online audio file)
• The Institute for Intercultural Studies - ethnographic institute founded by Mead, with resources relating to Mead's work
  • Margaret Mead biography at IIS
• Library of Congress, Margaret Mead: Human Nature and the Power of Culture
• American Museum of Natural History, Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival
• Works by or about Margaret Mead in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• "Margaret Mead, 1901-1978: A Public Face of Anthropology": brief biography, Voice of America