|
 To
the Field and Back
Margaret Mead's professor, Franz
Boas, was the dominant figure in early twentieth-century anthropology.
He sent generations of his students to the field to document preliterate
cultures and small-scale societies whose way of life was changing
because of contact with the modern world. Boas wanted Mead, with
her training in psychology, to study Native American adolescents,
but she wanted to go to Polynesia, the culture area she had researched
for her doctoral dissertation. They compromised, and she went
to American Samoa, where there was an American military presence
and boats arrived regularly.
Between 1925, when she set out
for Samoa, and 1939, Mead studied seven cultures in the South
Pacific and Indonesia. In all of these studies, she focused on
the relationship between the individual and culture, particularly
in the transmission of culture to children. Mead was one of the
earliest American anthropologists to apply techniques and theories
from modern psychology to understanding culture. She believed
that cultures emphasize certain aspects of human potential at
the expense of others. Mead was especially interested in how cultures
standardize personality and what happens to people temperamentally
at odds with the behavior expected of them. Her pioneering researches
included looking at different cultural expectations for males
and females, an early attempt at understanding what are now called
"gender roles."
 Some
of Mead's conclusions have been questioned, both during her lifetime
and since her death. One frequent criticism of her work--particularly
in her writings for general audiences--has been that she drew
conclusions too broadly without offering sufficient evidence.
Although Mead often responded sharply to criticism, she was sensitive
to the possibility of observer bias in her field research. Primarily
for this reason, she preserved her complete field notes and other
materials for other researchers to consult and interpret.
|
Library of Congress