Coming of Age in Samoa

by Mead, Margaret

• ISBN13: 9780688050337
• ISBN10: 0688050336
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-03-12
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

Rarely do science and literature come together in the same book. When they do -- as in Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, for example -- they become classics, quoted and studied by scholars and the general public alike.

Margaret Mead accomplished this remarkable feat not once but several times, beginning with Coming of Age in Samoa. It details her historic journey to American Samoa, taken where she was just twenty-three, where she did her first fieldwork.

Here, for the first time, she presented to the public the idea that the individual experience of developmental stages could be shaped by cultural demands and expectations. Adolescence, she wrote, might be more or less stormy, and sexual development more or less problematic in different cultures. The "civilized" world, she taught us had much to learn from the "primitive." Now this groundbreaking, beautifully written work as been reissued for the centennial of her birth, featuring introductions by Mary Pipher and by Mead's daughter, Mary Catherine Bateson.

"Illuminating and interesting . . . Corroborates, through practical demonstration, the psychosexual theories promulgated by Freud and his pupils." - Dr. A. A. Brill

Author Biography

Margaret Mead (1901-1978) began her brilliant career when she visited Samoa at the age of twenty-three. She went on to become one of the most influential women of our time, publishing some forty works and serving as Curator of Ethnology at the American Museum of Natural History as well as president of major scientific associations. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom following her death in 1978

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. ix
Words for a New Century	p. xi
Introduction to the Perennial Classics Edition	p. xv
Foreword	p. xxi
Preface to the 1973 Edition	p. xxiii
Introduction	p. 3
A Day in Samoa	p. 12
The Education of the Samoan Child	p. 16
The Samoan Household	p. 29
The Girl and Her Age Group	p. 42
The Girl in the Community	p. 52
Formal Sex Relations	p. 61
The Role of the Dance	p. 77
The Attitude Towards Personality	p. 86
The Experience and Individuality of the Average Girl	p. 92
The Girl in Conflict	p. 110
Maturity and Old Age	p. 128
Our Educational Problems in the Light of Samoan Contrasts	p. 135
Education for Choice	p. 161
Notes to Chapters	p. 171
Methodology of This Study	p. 179
Samoan Civilisation as It Is To-day	p. 185
The Mentally Defective and the Mentally Diseased	p. 195
Materials upon Which the Analysis Is Based	p. 199
Sample Record Sheet	p. 201
Table I. Showing Menstrual History, Sex Experience and Residence in Pastor's Household	p. 202
Table II. Family Structure, and Analysis of Table	p. 203
Intelligence Tests Used	p. 206
Check List Used in Investigation of Each Girl's Experience	p. 208
Index and Glossary	p. 211
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