MARGARET MEAD, DEREK FREEMAN AND COMING OF AGE IN SAMOA
Keywords:
Margaret Mead, Derek Freeman, Samoa, cultural particularism, biology/culture dichotomyAbstract
Margaret Mead is one of the most famous anthropologists of all time and she is mostly remembered for her book Coming of Age in Samoa. But that book came under attack of Derek Freeman, anthropologist who tried to prove that most of her conclusions were not valid. Controversy over these issues became one of the greatest controversies in anthropology and this paper tries to present all the relevant aspects of this controversy, because as in all scientific controversies, a lot of different important issues were raised. This debate can teach us very useful things about anthropology as science and not only about Samoan culture.
Downloads
References
Barkow, J. H. (1978). Social norms, the self, and sociobiology: Building on the ideas of A. I. Hallowell. Current Anthropology, 19 (1), 99-118.
Bateson, M. C. (1980). Continuities in insight and innovation: Toward a biography of Margaret Mead. American Anthropologist, 82 (2), 270-277.
Benedict, R. (1934/1959). Patterns of Culture. New York: The New Library of the World Literature.
Benedict, R. (1948). Anthropology and the humanities. American Anthropologist, 50 (4), 585-593.
Boas, F. (1911/1938). The Mind of Primitive Man. Revised Edition. New York: The Macmillan Company.
Boas, F. (1912). Changes in the bodily form of descendants of immigrants. American Anthropologist, 14 (3), 530-562.
Boas, F. (1916a). Eugenics. The Scientific Monthly, 3 (5), 471-478.
Boas, F. (1928). Foreword. In: Mead (1928), pp. xiii-xv.
Boas, F. (1928/1962). Anthropology and Modern Life. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Bock, P. T. (1983). The Samoan puberty blues. Journal of Anthropological Research, 39 (3), 336-340.
Caton, H. (ed.) (1990). The Samoa Reader: Anthropologists Take Stock. Boston: University Press of America.
Caton, H. (2000). The Mead/Freeman controversy is over: A retrospect. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 29 (5), 587-605.
Chagnon, N. (1968/1996). Yanomamö: The Fierce People, Fifth Edition. New York: Harcourt Brace.
Cole, J. R. (1993). Samoan hoax, Margaret Mead, and cultural relativity – A comment. The Skeptical Inquirer, 17 (4), 435-436.
Côté, J. E. (2000a). The Mead-Freeman controversy in review. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 29 (5), 525-538.
Côté, J. E. (2000b). The implausibility of Freeman’s hoaxing theory: An update. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 29 (5), 575-585.
Côté, J. E. (2000c). Appendix: Excerpts from the Boas-Mead correspondence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 29 (5), 607-616.
Côté, J. E. (2000d). Was Coming of Age in Samoa based on a „fateful hoaxing”? Current Anthropology, 41 (4), 617-622.
Darwin, C. (1859/1964). On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. (facs. ed. of 1st ed.) Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press.
Degler, C. N. (1991). In Search of Human Nature: The Decline and Revival of Darwinism in American Social Thought. New York: Oxford University Press.
Dilthey, W. (1996). Hermeneutics and the Study of History. Edited by R. A. Makkreel and F. Rodi. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Earley, F. L. (1993). Samoan hoax, Margaret Mead, and cultural relativity – A comment. The Skeptical Inquirer, 17 (4), 438-439.
Feinberg, R. (1988). Margaret Mead and Samoa: Coming of age in fact in fiction. American Anthropologist, 90 (3), 656-663.
Fox, J. J. (2001). Foreword. In: Freeman (2001a), pp. v-ix.
Foerstel, L. and A. Gilliam (eds) (1992). Confronting the Margaret Mead Legacy: Scholarship, Empire, and the South Pacific. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Freeman, D. (1967/1990). Freeman to Holmes, October 10, 1967. In: Caton (1990), pp. 316-320.
Freeman, D. (1970/2001). Human nature and culture. In: Freeman (2001a), pp. 1-19.
Freeman, D. (1979/2001). The anthropology of choice. In: Freeman (2001a), pp. 21-39.
Freeman, D. (1983). Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and Unmaking of an Anthropological Myth. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Freeman, D. (1989). Fa’apua’a Fa’amū and Margaret Mead. American Anthropologist, 91 (4), 1017-1022.
Freeman, D. (1991). On Franz Boas and the Samoan researches of Margaret Mead. Current Anthropology, 32 (3), 322-330.
Freeman, D. (1991/2001). Paradigms in collision: The far-reaching controversy over the Samoan researches of Margaret Mead and its significance for the human sciences. In: Freeman (2001a), pp. 41-60.
Freeman, D. (1998/2001). In praise of heresy. In: Freeman (2001a), pp. 79-92.
Freeman, D. (1999). The Fateful Hoaxing of Margaret Mead: A Historical Analysis of Her Samoan Research. Boulder: Westview Press.
Freeman, D. (2000). Was Margaret Mead misled or did she misled on Samoa? Current Anthropology, 41 (4), 609-614.
Freeman, D. (2001a). Dilthey’s Dream: Essays on Human Nature and Culture. Canberra: Pandanus Books.
Freeman, D. (2001b). Margaret Mead’s Coming of Age in Samoa and Boasian culturalism: An historical analysis. In: Freeman (2001a), pp. 93-112.
Galton, F. (1865a). Hereditary talent and character: Part I. Macmillan’s Magazine, 12: 157-166.
Galton, F. (1865b). Hereditary talent and character: Part II. Macmillan’s Magazine, 12: 318-327.
Galton, F. (1869/1925). Hereditary Genius: An Inquiry into Its Laws and Consequences. London: Macmillan and Co.
Gardner, M. (1993a). The great Samoan hoax. The Skeptical Inquirer, 17 (2), 131-135.
Gardner, M. (1993b). Samoan hoax, Margaret Mead, and cultural relativity – A comment. The Skeptical Inquirer, 17 (4), 439-440.
Geertz, C. (1989). Margaret Mead 1901-1978: Biographical Memoir. Washington: National Academy of Sciences, pp. 329-354.
Gilliam, A. and L. Foerstel (1992). Margaret Mead's contradictory legacy. In: Foerstel and Gilliam (1992), pp. 101-156.
Goldenweiser, A. (1917). The autonomy of the social. American Anthropologist, 19 (3), 447-449.
Grossman, A. (1985). Two biographies of Margaret Mead. Biography, 8 (3), 265-279.
Hallowell, A. I. (1950). Personality structure and the evolution of man. American Anthropologist, 52 (2), 159-173.
Handler, R. (1984). Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead, and the growth of American anthropology. The Journal of American History, 71 (2), 364-368.
Harris, M. (1968/2001). The Rise of Anthropological Theory: A History of Theories of Culture - Updated Edition. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press.
Harris, M. (1983). Margaret Mead and the giant-killer. Sciences, 23 (4), 18-21.
Hellman, H. (1998). Great Feuds in Science: Ten of the Liveliest Disputes Ever. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Holmes, L. (1967/1990). Holmes to Freeman, August 1, 1967. In: Caton (1990), pp. 315-316.
Holmes, L. D. (1983a). A tale of two studies. American Anthropologist, 85 (4), 929-935.
Holmes, L. D. (1983b). Margaret Mead’s Samoa: Views and reviews. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 58 (4), 539-544.
Holmes, L. D. (1983c). South seas squall. Sciences, 23 (4), 14-18.
Howard, J. (1984). Margaret Mead: A Life. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Hsu, F. L. K. (1980). Margaret Mead and psychological anthropology. American Anthropologist, 82 (2), 349-353.
James, W. (1890/1952). The Principles of Psychology. Chicago: William Benton.
Kroeber, A. L. (1917). The superorganic. American Anthropologist, 19 (2), 163-213.
Kuklick, H. (1984). Ourselves and others. Contemporary Sociology, 13 (5), 558-562.
Langness, L. L. (1975). Margaret Mead and the study of socialization. Ethos, 3 (2), 97-112.
Lapsley, H. (1999). Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict: The Kinship of Women. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
Leacock, E. (1992). Anthropologists in search of a culture: Margaret Mead, Derek Freeman, and all the rest of us. In: Foerstel and Gilliam (1992), pp. 3-30.
Levine, D. N. (1995). Visions of the Sociological Tradition. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
Levy, R. I. (1983). Margaret Mead and Samoa by Derek Freeman. Science, 220 (4599), 829-832.
Levy, R. I. (1984). Mead, Freeman, and Samoa: The problem of seeing things as they are. Ethos, 12 (1), 85-92.
Lowie, R. H. (1917). Culture & Ethnology. New York: Douglas C. McMurtrie.
Lutkehaus, N. C. (2008). Margaret Mead: The Making of American Icon. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.
McDowell, N. (1980). The Oceanic ethnography of Margaret Mead. American Anthropologist, 82 (2), 278-302.
McDowell, N. (2005). Introduction: The essentialization of Margaret Mead. Pacific Studies, 28 (3-4), 4-18.
Malinowski, B. (1922/1932). Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guniea. London: George Routledge & Sons.
Mead, M. (1928a). Coming of Age in Samoa: A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilisation. New York: William Morrow & Company.
Mead, M. (1928b). The role of individual in Samoan culture. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 58, 481-495.
Mead, M. (1930). Growing Up in New Guniea: A Comparative Study of Primitive Education. New York: Blue Ribbon Books.
Mead, M. (1935/1952). Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies. New York: The New American Library.
Mead, M. (ed.) (1937). Cooperation and Competition among Primitive Peoples. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Mead, M. (1949/1957). Male and Female: A Study of the Sexes in a Changing World. New York: The New American Library.
Mead, M. (1953). National character. In: Kroeber (1953), pp. 642-667.
Mead, M. (1958). The group as the unit of social evolution. Man, 58: 178.
Mead, M. (1961a). Anthropology among the sciences. American Anthropologist, 63 (3), 475-482.
Mead, M. (1961b). The human study of human beings. Science, 133 (3447), 163.
Mead, M. (1961c). Ta’u: Stability and change in a Samoan Village. American Anthropologist, 63 (2), 428-430.
Mead, M. (1964/1999). Continuities in Cultural Evolution. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
Mead, M. (1970). Bio-social components of political processes. Journal of International Affairs, 24 (1), 18-28.
Mead, M. (1976). Towards a human science. Science, 191 (4230), 903-909.
Metraux, R. (1980a). Margaret Mead: A biographical sketch. American Anthropologist, 82 (2), 261-269.
Metraux, R. (1980b). The study of culture at a distance: A prototype. American Anthropologist, 82 (2), 362-373.
Murray, S. O. and R. Darnell (2000). Margaret Mead and paradigm shifts within anthropology during the 1920s. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 29 (5), 557-573.
Nardi, B. A. (1984). The height of her powers: Margaret Mead’s Samoa. Feminist Studies, 10 (2), 323-337.
Nietzsche, F. (1872/1999). The Birth of Tragedy and Other Writings. Edited by R. Geuss and R. Speirs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ogburn, W. F. and D. Thomas (1922). Are inventions inevitable? A note on social evolution. Political Science Quarterly, 37 (1), 83-98.
Paxman, D. B. (1988). Freeman, Mead, and the eighteenth-century controversy over Polynesian society. Pacific Studies, 11 (3), 1-19.
Popper, K. R. (1935/2002). Logic of Scientific Discovery. London and New York: Routledge.
Provine, W. B. (1973). Geneticists and the biology of race crossing. Science, 182 (114), 790-796.
Redfield, R. (1926). Anthropology, a natural science? Social Forces, 4 (4), 715-721.
Redfield, R. (1954). Social scientist: Man between. Chicago Review, 8 (3), 35- 43.
Reeves Sanday, P. (1980). Margaret Mead’s view of sex roles in her own and other societies. American Anthropologist, 82 (2), 340-348.
Romanucci-Ross, L. (1980). Margaret Mead, muse of the clinical experience. American Anthropologist, 82 (2), 303-317.
Romanucci-Ross, L. (1988/1990). Mead recognizes her error. Transcript of interviews for the documentary film Margaret Mead and Samoa. In: Caton (1990), pp. 321-324.
Sapir, E. (1917). Do we need a „superorganic”? American Anthropologist, 19 (3), 441-447.
Schwartz, T. (1983). Anthropology: A quaint science. American Anthropologist, 85 (4), 919-929.
Schwartz, T. (1993). Samoan hoax, Margaret Mead, and cultural relativity – A comment. The Skeptical Inquirer, 17 (4), 436-438.
Segerstråle, U. (2000). Defenders of the Truth: The Battle for Science in the Sociobiology Debate and Beyond. New York: Oxford University Press.
Shankman, P. (1996). The history of Samoan sexual conduct and the MeadFreeman controversy. American Anthropologist, 98 (3), 555-567.
Shankman, P. (2000). Culture, biology, and evolution: The Mead-Freeman controversy revisited. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 29 (5), 539-556.
Shankman, P. (2005). Margaret Mead's other Samoa: Rereading Social Organization of Manu'a. Pacific Studies, 28 (3-4), 46-59.
Shankman, P. (2009a). Derek Freeman and Margaret Mead: What did he know and when did he know it? Pacific Studies, 32 (2-3), 202-221.
Shankman, P. (2009b). The Trashing of Margaret Mead: Anatomy of an Anthropological Controversy. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.
Shore, B. (1983). Paradox regained: Freeman’s Margaret Mead and Samoa. American Anthropologist, 85 (4), 935-944.
Silverman, M. G. (1983). Our great deception, or, anthropology defiled! American Anthropologist, 85 (4), 944-947.
Snow, C. P. (1959/1964). The Two Cultures. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Škorić, M. (2009). Evolucioni program u sociologiji. Sociološki pregled, 43 (4), 413-443.
Škorić, M. (2010). Sociologija nauke: mertonovski i konstruktivistički programi. Sremski Karlovci i Novi Sad: Izdavačka knjižarnica Zorana Stojanovića.
Škorić, M. (2011). Standardni model društvene nauke i noviji pokušaji integracije sociologije, antropologije i biologije. Neobjavljena doktorska disertacija.
Thomas, W. I. (1923). The unadjusted girl: With cases and standpoint for behavior analysis. Criminal Science Monographs, 4: 1-257.
Tiffany, S. W. (2001). Imagining the South Seas: Thoughts on the sexual politics of paradise in Samoa. Pacific Studies, 24 (3-4), 19-49.
Toulmin, S. (1999). Introduction to the Transaction edition. In: Mead (1964/1999): xi-xxiv.
Watson, J. B. (1913). Psychology as behaviorist views it. Psychological Review, 20 (2), 158-177.
Weiner, A. B. (1983). Ethnographic determinism: Samoa and the Margaret Mead controversy. American Anthropologist, 85 (4), 909-919.
Wilson, E. O. (1994). Naturalist. New York: Warner Books.
Yans-McLaughlin, V. (1984). Inquisition and appreciation: Two approaches to the study of anthropologists. American Quarterly, 36 (2), 315-321.
