I. Mead and Anthropology as Cultural Critique

A. Use Samoa to get Americans to think about ways to avoid adolescent stress
B. Does Mead think Samoa is better?

1. Samoa = simple, less intelligent
2. America = complex, diverse, specialization of talents has led to progress
3. Make US process of enculturation and education consistent with diversity and emphasis on individual choice

 

II. Margaret Mead's fame

A. Public advocate to change US society
B. Curator of the Museum of Natural History in New York
C. Appeared in newspapers, magazines, and public forums
D. Columnist in Redbook
E. Related anthropology to everyday life
F. The price of popularity: exaggeration, inaccuracy?

 

III. Derek Freeman and the "Unmaking" of Margaret Mead

A. Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and Unmaking of an Anthropological Myth (1983)

1. Claims to prove Mead wrong
2. Book does two things:

a. Provides contrary evidence about Samoa
b. Attacks cultural relativism, says bias tainted Mead's research

3. Research conducted between 1940 and 1967 in British Samoa

B. Freeman's specific arguments

1. Samoans are violent, aggressive, esp. men
2. Prudish, virginity cult, no "sex under the palm trees"
3. Moetotolo (sleep crawler) = rape
4. Mother-child bond is strong, instinctive

C. Biological basis for human behavior

1. Violence results from noradrenaline
2. Culture tries to suppress instinctive emotions

a. Example: chiefs and politeness

D. Reasons why Mead was wrong, according to Freeman

1. Blinded by loyalty to Franz Boas
2. Political views tainted research
3. Informants lied

 

IV. Coming to Terms with Mead-Freeman Debate

A. Intense public reaction
B. Assessing facts about sex and violence, problems of using field as laboratory
C. Differences in research context

1. Mead: American Samoa, 1920s
2. Freeman: British Samoa, 1940s onward
3. Freeman: older chiefs; Mead: young girls

D. Logical difficulties with assuming violence and emotion are instinctive, biological
E. Moetotolo: not rape in all circumstances, can be strategy to force marriage in face of parental disapproval
F. Prudishness: daytime versus nighttime morality
G. Mothering instinct: cultural, based on context (example of Brazilian shantytowns)
H. Mead: cultural relativist, not cultural determinist

 

V. The Legacy of the Mead-Freeman Debate

A. "Facts" and interpretations
B. Flaws in experimental ethnography

1. Can't generalize about entire population based on one specific subset
2. Faulty assumptions about culture

a. Culture is multidimensional, not one personality
b. Rules versus actual behavior

3. Mead later recognized flaws in fieldwork laboratory approach

C. Ethnography is descriptive, not scientific

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