Margaret Mead

1
Margaret Mead

• (Dec. 16, 1901-Nov. 15, 1978)

• An American cultural anthropologist and speaker
  in the mass media throughout the 60's and 70's
• Born to a professor of finance and a sociologist.
• Her family moved alot so her early schooling was
  a mix of home-schooling and regular institutions.

• All of her husbands were anthropologists.

2
Husbands, Degrees and a Lesbian?

• Luthor Cressman, former theology student turned
  anthropologist. (1923-28)
• Reo Fortune, an anthropologist who wrote
  Sorcerer's of Dobu. She said that this
  relationship was more passionate than the
  previous. (1928-35)
• Gregory Bateson, an anthropologist, whom she said
  she loved the most, but who left her. They had a
  child Mary Catherine Bateson in 1939. (1936-50)

3
Husbands, Degrees and a Lesbian?

• Got her B.A. from Bernard University in 1923.
• Got her M.A. from Columbia University in 1924,
  under influence of professor Franz Boas and Dr.
  Ruth Benedict.
• Got her Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1929.

4
Husbands, Degrees and a Lesbian?

• Her daughter Mary Catherine Bateson wrote a book
  where she suggested that her mother may have had
  a sexual relationship with Dr. Ruth Benedict.
• Mead never openly stated that she was a lesbian
  or bisexual.

5
Coming of Age in Samoa

• This ethnography was designed to discuss whether
  the problems facing adolescents were products of
  adolescence or products of society.
• There has been some controversy about this book
  because Derek Freeman went to study in Samoa and
  stated that many of the facts stated in the book
  were false or lies.

6
Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies

• This book was a discussion of the female
  dominated societies of Papua New Guinea.
• This book was very crucial to the feminist
  movement due to the idea that women can be in
  control of society without ramifications.

7
Complete Works
As a sole author Coming of Age in Samoa
(1928) 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) 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) 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
8
Awards/Legacy

• After her death, Mead was awarded the
  Presidential Medal of Freedom, by Jimmy Carter.
  The award was presented to her daughter.
• She left her mark on Feminism and the Sexual
  Revolution, through her many works.
• Also left her mark on some American Episcopal
  literature.
• There is also a school in Washington State named
  after her.
• She was also named the Mother of the World, in
  1969 by Time magazine.

9
Bibliography

• Bateson, Mary Catherine. (1984) With a Daughter's
  Eye A Memoir of Margaret Mead and Gregory
  Bateson, New York William Morrow.
• Freeman, Derek. (1983) Margaret Mead and Samoa,
  Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press.
• http//www.webster.edu/woolflm/margaretmead.html