Margaret Mead

1901-1978
American anthropologist

"Life in the twentieth century is like a parachute jump ó you have to get it right the first time."

Introduction

In 1928 the publication of Coming of Age in Samoa, a study of adolescent behavior in a Polynesian society, by Margaret Mead changed American anthropology, the scientific study of human beings. The book became a best-seller as its American readers wanted to learn about sexual patterns among Samoan females. It brought its author to the forefront of American anthropology, where she would remain for half a century. 

Numerous field trips and books followed, as did studies of American nutrition patterns and changing social values. Mead pioneered research methods that helped shape American public policy, becoming the leading authority on American culture and the preeminent authority in her field. Her frequent commentaries on the family, sex, the generation gap, and moral issues made her into a figure scorned by some and revered by millions. 

"Unlike other children"

Margaret Mead was born the oldest of four children on December 18, 1901, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her parents were educators and the family moved frequently during her youth. Experiencing somewhat advanced ideas for the time, Mead learned that women could have their own profession from her grandmother and her mother, who was a suffragette (a woman who advocated the right of women to vote). Her parents encouraged her to play with children of all racial and economic backgrounds and she was taught early to closely observe others. She also learned to paint and dance. Mead recalls that she "took pride in being unlike other children and in living in a household that was in itself unique." 

Trips to Samoa and New Guinea

While attending Barnard College in New York City, Mead developed an interest in anthropology. In a class with the famous anthropologist Franz Boas, she learned of the importance of studying cultures that were rapidly disappearing around the world. "That settled it for me. Anthropology had to be done now. Other things could wait," she said later. After graduating in 1923 Mead married Luther Cressman and entered Columbia University graduate school in New York City. 

Two years later Mead left for a nine-month stay in Samoa, an island in the southwest central Pacific Ocean, to study adolescence and biological and cultural influences on behavior. She found that "suspending for the time one's beliefs and disbeliefs" was necessary in order to understand "another reality" she encountered in Samoa. Mead lived with the villagers during the day and at night, giving her an advantage in observing and understanding behavior and customs that otherwise would have remained unknowable to a person from the United States. For instance, she discovered that monogamy (marriage to one person) and jealousy were not valued or understood by the Samoans, and that divorce occurred simply by the husband or wife "going home." However, her most important work in Samoa was on courtship patterns in adolescents. 

Mead made her second field trip in the late 1920s with her second husband, Reo Fortune. Studying the culture of Manus, the largest of the Admiralty Islands off the coast of New Guinea, she observed the fantasy worlds of young children and the development of social behavior. In 1930 Mead wrote Growing Up in New Guinea about her findings among the Manus. Five years later she published Sex and Temperament about her studies of the Arapesh, Mundugumor, and Tchambuli peoples in New Guinea. As a result of her observations she concluded that human values depend on time and environment, not inherited traits. 

38,000 Balinese photographs

In 1936 Mead went to Bali, an Indonesian island with Gregory Bateson, her third husband, with the plan to study the presence or absence of schizophrenia, a mental disease, in the Balinese people. But Boas had told Mead, "If I were going to Bali I would study gesture," so she and Bateson decided to follow Boas's advice. In fact, they took 38,000 photographs in their study of Balinese character, which resulted in their innovative 1941 book Balinese Character: A Photographic Analysis.

Although doctors repeatedly told Mead she could never have children, after several miscarriages she gave birth to a daughter, Mary Catherine Bateson, in 1939. During World War II, Mead served on the U.S. Committee on Food Habits and worked on a national character study that examined British and American relations. In 1942 she published And Keep Your Powder Dry: An Anthropologist Looks at America, in which she compares American culture with the cultures of seven other countries. 

Counselor to American society

Always Mead seemed to return to studying the family. Every few years she commented on the problems facing American families amid changing social conditions. She was concerned about the loss of extended families and the isolation felt by people living in cities. An early feminist, Mead wrote in 1946 about the need for changing gender roles. Perhaps her most profound impact was as a counselor to American society. With Rhoda Metraux, she wrote a monthly column in Redbook for 17 years (1961-1978), offering advice to American women. Though married and divorced three times, Mead firmly stated, "I don't consider my marriages as failures. It's idiotic to assume that because a marriage ends, it's failed." Mead was critical of the women's movement when it was anti-male, calling for a truly revolutionary vision of gender relations. 

Social outlook

During the 1960s Mead wrote on a number of issues with the hope of influencing the thinking of the American public, particularly on topics such as the generation gap, the environmental crisis, and overpopulation. Rather than increasing the world's population, Mead advocated a philosophy of educating and nurturing all the world's children as our own. She was also an early proponent of birth control, an advocate of the repeal of anti-abortion laws, and a supporter of the right to die. While Mead endorsed civil disobedience she was also a strong believer in people being morally responsible for their lives. 

Honors and awards

Margaret Mead lived life fully and tirelessly. "I am glad that I am alive," she said. "I am glad that I am living at this particular very difficult, very dangerous, and very crucial period in human history." Her list of published works is long and her honors numerous. In 1969 Time named her Mother of the Year. She was president of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science and remained active in education for most of her life, teaching at Columbia University and New York University among other schools. Mead's association with the American Museum of Natural History dates from 1926, when she became assistant curator. In 1964 she was appointed curator of the museum and named curator emeritus, an honorary title, in 1969. Mead died of cancer on November 15, 1978, in New York City.