Margaret Mead (1901-1978)

Born on December 16, 1901, anthropologist Margaret Mead dedicated her life to the understanding of human cultures.

Her interest in the field started with an anthropology course at Barnard College and led her to earn a doctorate at Columbia University, studying with Ruth Benedict and Franz Boas. In 1925 she studied the development of adolescent girls in American Samoa and published her findings in Coming of Age in Samoa.

Over the course of her career, Mead wrote 44 books and more than 1,000 articles that have been translated into dozens of languages. While she was the first in her field to study child-rearing practices, her writings encompass a multitude of issues, including a study of the sexes in a changing world and an analysis of Soviet attitudes toward authority.

Margaret Mead died in 1978, leaving behind a daughter, Mary Catherine Bateson - a distinguished anthropologist in her own right - and a voluminous body of research, which still sheds light on human behavior today.

Recommended further resources

On the web:
The Institute for Intercultural Studies: Margaret Mead Centennial Site

Online exhibition of the Library of Congress -- Margaret Mead: Human Nature and the Power of Culture

Margaret Mead at New York's American Museum of Natural History

Film:
Margaret Mead: an Observer Observed. Directed by Alan Berliner; written and produced by Virginia Yans. For more information, contact the Filmmakers' Library, 1-800-555-9815.

Books by Margaret Mead:
Coming of Age in Samoa: A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilization. New York: Morrow, 1928 (1988). (New edition wih introduction by Mary Pipher to be published by HarperCollins in 2001.)

Growing Up in New Guinea: A Comparative Study of Primitive Education. New York: Morrow, 1931 (1976). (New edition with introduction by Howard Gardner and Mary Catherine Bateson published by HarperCollins in 2001.)

Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies. New York: Morrow, 1935 (1988). (New edition with introduction by Helen Fisher and Mary Catherine Bateson to be published by HarperCollins in 2001).

And Keep Your Powder Dry: An Anthropologist Looks at America. New York: Morrow, 1942. (New edition with introduction by Herve Varenne published by Berghahn in 2000.)

Male and Female: A Study of the Sexes in a Changing World. New York: Morrow, 1949 (1996). (New edition with introduction by Helen Fisher and Mary Catherine Bateson to be published by HarperCollins in 2001.)

Soviet Attitudes Toward Authority: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Problems of Soviet Character. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1951. (Revised edition with new introduction by Sergei Aruitnov is one of two classic works included in Berghahn Books' 2001 volume, Russian Culture).

With Metraux, Rhoda (editors). The Study of Culture at a Distance. University of Chicago Press, 1953. (Revised edition with new introduction by William Beeman published by Berghahn Books in 2000.)

With Metraux, Rhoda. Themes in French Culture. Stanford University Press, 1954. (Revised edition with new introduction by Kathryn Anderson-Levitt published by Berghahn Books in 2001.)

Blackberry Winter: My Earlier Years. New York: Morrow, 1972 (1995). Paperback edition published in 1995 by Kodansha International.

Books about Margaret Mead and her work:
Orans, Martin. Not Even Wrong: Margaret Mead, Derek Freeman, and the Samoans. Chandler & Sharp Publications, 1996.

Bateson, Mary Catherine. With a Daughter's Eye: A Memoir of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson. Harper Perennial, 1994; William Morrow, 1984. (Reprinted in 2001 by HarperCollins).

Howard, Jane. Margaret Mead: A Life. Fawcett Columbine, 1984.

Lapsley, Hilary. Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict: The Kinship of Women. University of Massachusetts Press, 1999.

Articles:
Freeman, Derek. Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and Unmaking of an Anthropology of Myth. 1983.

Freeman, Derek. The Fateful Hoaxing of Margaret Mead. 1999.

Shankman, Paul. Sex, Lies and Anthropologists: Margaret Mead, Derek Freeman, and Samoa. M. Ember, C. Ember, and D. Levinson, eds. In Research Frontiers in Anthropology, Prentice Hall, 1994.

Shankman, Paul. Culture, Biology, and Evolution: The Mead-Freeman Controversy Revisited. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Vol. 29, No. 5, 2000, pp. 539-557.

Dillon, Wilton. Profiles of Famous Educators: a Memoir (Margaret Mead, 1901-1978). Prospects, International Bureau of Education, UNESCO.

Cote, James. Much Ado About Nothing: The 'Fateful Hoaxing' of Margaret Mead. Skeptical Inquirer, November/December 1998, pp. 29-34.

DiLeonardo, Micaela. Margaret Mead vs. Tony Soprano. The Nation: May 21, 2001.

more about her history