Coming of Age in Samoa
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| - | {{Template}}'''''Coming of Age in Samoa''''', first published in [[1928]], is a book by [[Margaret Mead]] based upon youth in [[Samoa]] and lightly relating to youth in [[United States|America]]. Mead's findings seemed to show that youth in Samoa are taught to grow together and strengthen the confidence of each other. As a result, their community is much more tightly knit than that of other cultures, and the individuals themselves are more emotionally secure. In contrast, American youth are taught to compete against each other, leaving them isolated within their own cliques. The book also put forward the thesis that Samoan teenagers (with greater [[sexual permissiveness]]) suffered less psychological stress than American teenagers (with stricter sexual | + | {{Template}} |
| - | morals). In it: | + | |
| - | :"[s]he emphatically criticized the neurosis-inducing [[nuclear family]], including the stress of Christian monogamy, and used her Samoan material to demonstrate an alternative to premarital [[chastity]]..." | + | '''''Coming of Age in Samoa: A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilisation''''' (1928) is a book by American [[Anthropology|anthropologist]] [[Margaret Mead]] based upon her research and study of youth – primarily adolescent girls – on the island of [[Taʻū]] in the [[Samoan Islands]]. The book details the sexual life of teenagers in Samoan society in the early 20th century, and theorizes that culture has a leading influence on [[psychosexual]] development. |
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| + | First published in 1928, the book launched Mead as a pioneering researcher and as the most famous anthropologist in the world. Since its first publication, ''Coming of Age in Samoa'' was the most widely read book in the field of anthropology until [[Napoleon Chagnon]]'s ''[[Yanomamö: The Fierce People]]'' overtook it. The book has sparked years of ongoing and intense debate and controversy on questions pertaining to society, culture, and science. It is a key text in the [[nature versus nurture]] debate, as well as in discussions on issues relating to family, adolescence, [[gender]], social norms, and attitudes. | ||
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| + | In the 1980s, [[Derek Freeman]] [[The Mead–Freeman controversy|contested many of Mead's claims]], and argued that she was hoaxed into counterfactually believing that Samoan culture had more relaxed sexual norms than Western culture. However, several members of the anthropology community have rejected Freeman's criticism, accusing him of [[cherry picking]] his data, and misrepresenting both Mead's research and the interviews that he conducted. Mead's field work for "Coming of Age" was also scrutinized, and major discrepancies were found between her published statements and her field data. Samoans themselves tend to be critical of what Mead wrote of their culture, especially her claim that adolescent promiscuity was socially acceptable in Samoa in the 1920s. | ||
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Coming of Age in Samoa: A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilisation (1928) is a book by American anthropologist Margaret Mead based upon her research and study of youth – primarily adolescent girls – on the island of Taʻū in the Samoan Islands. The book details the sexual life of teenagers in Samoan society in the early 20th century, and theorizes that culture has a leading influence on psychosexual development.
First published in 1928, the book launched Mead as a pioneering researcher and as the most famous anthropologist in the world. Since its first publication, Coming of Age in Samoa was the most widely read book in the field of anthropology until Napoleon Chagnon's Yanomamö: The Fierce People overtook it. The book has sparked years of ongoing and intense debate and controversy on questions pertaining to society, culture, and science. It is a key text in the nature versus nurture debate, as well as in discussions on issues relating to family, adolescence, gender, social norms, and attitudes.
In the 1980s, Derek Freeman contested many of Mead's claims, and argued that she was hoaxed into counterfactually believing that Samoan culture had more relaxed sexual norms than Western culture. However, several members of the anthropology community have rejected Freeman's criticism, accusing him of cherry picking his data, and misrepresenting both Mead's research and the interviews that he conducted. Mead's field work for "Coming of Age" was also scrutinized, and major discrepancies were found between her published statements and her field data. Samoans themselves tend to be critical of what Mead wrote of their culture, especially her claim that adolescent promiscuity was socially acceptable in Samoa in the 1920s.
