American Margaret’s Mead classical book “Coming of Age in Samoa” was first published in 1928 in New York and was written to be a psychological study of primitive youth for western civilization. Thus, Margaret Mead (1901-1978) became one of the most influential ethnologists under the aegis of Prof. Franz Boas at Columbia University in America and beyond.
Actually, she visited Samoa at the age of 23, to do her investigations in the Samoan Islands and concentrated upon some 50 adolescent girls within three villages on the coast of the little island of Tau in the Manu’a Archipelago. Through the nine months which she spent in Samoa, she gathered many detailed facts summarized in a table in the Appendix I. She has tried to present to the reader the Samoan girls in their social setting, to describe the course of their life from birth and death, and the problems they will have to solve. Lastly, she gives the reader some conception of a different and contrasting civilization and another way of live, which is mainly concerned with education.
After this short introduction, Margaret Mead goes into different chapters to highlight a day in Samoa, the education of the Samoan child, and the Samoan household. She continues to describe the girl and her age group, the girl in the community, formal sex relations, the role of dance, and the attitude towards personality. Finally, she concludes the experience and individuality of the average girl, the girl in conflict, maturity and old age, our educational problems in the light of Samoan contrasts and education for choice.
In the Appendix II is described the methodology of this study, which was later on criticized by some other ethnographers. The Appendix III gives Samoan civilization as it was that time, while the Appendix IV goes into the mentally defective and mentally diseased. In the Appendix V are materials mentioned, upon which the analysis is based. The book ends with an index and glossary, but there is no bibliography.
After having written this book, some others followed such as “Growing up in New Guinea: A comparative study of primitive education”, “Sex and Temperament in three primitive societies” and “Male and Female: A study of the sexes in a changing world” among others.
Furthermore, Margaret Mead was serving as Curator of Ethnology at the American Museum of Natural History as well as president of major scientific associations. Last not least, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom following her death in 1978.
The latest re-issued book was a HarperPerennial for the centennial of her birth, where “Words for a New Century” was written by her daughter Mary Catherine Bateson and with an introduction written by Mary Pipher, Ph.D. Also, Margaret Mead wrote a preface to the 1973 edition of her valuable and pioneering work.
Written by : Reinhard Hohler
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