The Trashing of Margaret Mead: Anatomy of an Anthropological Controversy

322 Pages·2009·1.41 MB·English

by  Paul Shankman

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E    E
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Series Editor
Paul S. Boyer
The Trashing of Margaret Mead
Anatomy of
an Anthropological Controversy
Paul Shankman
    
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Printed in the United States ofAmerica
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Shankman, Paul.
The trashing ofMargaret Mead: anatomy ofan anthropological controversy /
Paul Shankman.
p. cm.—(Studies in American thought and culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0-299–23454–6 (pbk.: alk. paper)
ISBN 978–0-299–23453–9 (e-book)
1. Mead, Margaret, 1901–1978. 2. Freeman, Derek.
3. Ethnology—Methodology. 4. Ethnology—Samoan Islands.
I. Title. II. Series: Studies in American thought and culture.
GN671.S2S53 2009
306.092—dc22
2009008197
To
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and to
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and

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List of Illustrations ix
Foreword by Paul S. Boyer x
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction 3
 1: The Controversy and the Media
1 The Controversy in the Media 23
2 Selling the Controversy 31
 2: Derek Freeman
3 Derek Freeman, the Critic 47
4 Psychoanalysis, Freeman, and Mead 57
 3: Margaret Mead and
Coming of Age in Samoa
5 Young Margaret Mead 73
6 First Fieldwork in Samoa 87
7 Writing Coming of Age in Samoa 101
8 Mead’s American Audience in the 1920s 116
 4: Sex, Lies, and Samoans
9 What the Controversy Meant to Samoans 135
10 Samoan Sexual Conduct: Belief and Behavior 151
vii
viii Contents
11 Under the Coconut Palms 160
12 Virginity and the History of Sex in Samoa 175
 5: The Broader Issues
13 The Many Versions of the Hoaxing Hypothesis 193
14 The Nature-Nurture Debate and the Appeal of
Freeman’s Argument 206
Conclusion 225
Appendix: True Confessions 239
Notes 249
Bibliography 271
Index 289
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Derek Freeman 6
Margaret Mead during her Samoan fieldwork 7
Mead’s graduation portrait, Barnard 74
Mead and the “Ash Can Cats” 78
Franz Boas 80
Mead with Luther Cressman 82
Ruth Benedict 83
Map of the Southwest Pacific 88
Mead with Samoan girls 93
Mead with Gregory Bateson and Reo Fortune 216
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