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Title: Coming of Age in Samoa : A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilisation by Margaret Mead ISBN: 0-688-05033-6 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 19 February, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.67 (9 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Clearly I'm Clueless
Comment: I can't see what is so bad about this book. I was disappointed that she left out several things that I thought was important, but ethnographers can't thing of everything (...) What I saw was a picture of a society on the very brink (but not yet) of being toppled by the intrusion of missionaries (as so many have been and continue to be). An interesting society. I also so many similarities to Malinowski's Trobriand work which I find intriguing.
Yes, I am clueless. I enjoyed this book and used it, among other works, for research. I can't imagine why it would offend anyone. Her limitations made it impossible for this to be seen as an authoritative work, of course, but nobody is an authority, especially in the anthropological community, since culture is always in a constant state of evolution. So why the attacks? Would she be so attacked if she weren't a woman? If she weren't dead? So she blew some theories out of the water. I haven't seen anybody come up with any evidence to support those theories since.
Rating: 5
Summary: Closer than Freeman, ironically
Comment: Freeman's nonsense aside, which seems to be taken as gospel by one or two reviewers below (apparently, Mead's Samoa is ladden with cultural intentions, but Freeman's work is not with his sociobiological intentions), this is a good book. I think Freeman is dishonest, and the fact that he couldn't attack Mead until after she was DEAD, speaks to me of a cowardly academic disgrace. For shame that he has any followers at all.
Mead is not my favorite author: her writing is discontinous, but this book is a good work. Seeing as how many people haven't even realized just how conservative this book is, they believe that the author has had a clear social agenda. The agenda is there folks, but it is not the one you think.
Mead's Samoa is probably more correct than Freeman's for a variety of reasons, but to go into various details would require several books.
For those with access to JSTOR, I would strongly urge to look at some critical reviews of Mead and Freeman. For those that have access to HRAF, I would suggest looking at short ethnographies of the area. Now, which sounds more accurate? Neither will be completely, but Freeman's work is the REAL emperor without cloths, and its followers should take a closer look at the world ethnographies before they advance either Freeman, or downright simplistic (and insulting) sociobiological nonsense that was already buried some 20 years ago.
Rating: 5
Summary: Brilliant, breathtaking, charming and timeless!
Comment: Margaret "menarche" Mead is hardly the geeky immaculate virgin mother of cultural anthropology that she makes herself out to be. She personally watched me "come of age" in Samoa, and I have to say in retrospect that it was kind of dodgy. At the time, I thought nothing of her seemingly innocent suggestive X-rated conversations, lewd photographs and sensual erotic massages. Only later, when I secretly read her diary, did I realise that all the time she was deliberately betraying and manipulating my most confidential teenage thoughts and emotions, as well as thoroughly documenting the measurements of my physical development. And only much, much later did I further realise that she had also corrupted our culture, introducing us to prostitution, bribery, tequila, chocolate and syphilis. The fact that she did so under the guise of academic research makes me wonder where she got her gynecological training and who was funding this scandalous project. That said, the book stands the test of time as a vivid reminder of the tragic consequences of blind ambition. Bravo, Miss Mead !
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Title: Patterns of Culture by Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead ISBN: 0395500885 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 26 June, 1989 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Five Families: Mexican Case Studies in the Culture of Poverty by Oscar Lewis, O. LaFarge, Margaret Mead ISBN: 0465097057 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: November, 1975 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
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Title: Growing Up in New Guinea : A Comparative Study of Primitive Education by Margaret Mead ISBN: 0688178111 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Fateful Hoaxing of Margaret Mead: A Historical Analysis of Her Samoan Research by Derek Freeman ISBN: 0813336937 Publisher: Westview Press Pub. Date: November, 1999 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: Argonauts of the Western Pacific by Bronislaw Malinowski ISBN: 0881330841 Publisher: Waveland Press Pub. Date: March, 1984 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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