Essay on coming of age in samoa - 1705 Words

Coming of Age in Somoa Margaret Mead’s â€Å"Coming of Age in Samoa†, which was actually her doctoral dissertation, was compiled in a period of six months starting in 1925. Through it, people were given a look at a society not affected by the problems of 20th century industrial America. She illustrated a picture of a society where love was available for the asking and crime was dealt with by exchanging a few mats. This book helps one to realize the large role played by social environment. One of Mead’s biggest challenges was probably the fact that her fieldwork was done entirely in the Samoan language. In Samoa, few, if any natives spoke English. To get information, Mead spent her time talking to approximately 25 Samoan women. However,†¦show more content†¦As far as the act of sex, much pressure is put on the man to perform: The Samoan puts the burden of amatory success upon the man and believes that woman need more initiating, more time for maturing of sexual feeling. A man who fails to satisfy a woman is looked upon as clumsy, inept blunderer....(91) The day in Samoa begins at dawn, and you can hear the shouts of young men. Most of the time, the people go to sleep around midnight and after that you only hear the whispers of lovers. Mead tells of how birthdays are not of importance, but the day of birth is, especially with highly ranked babies. On this day there is a great feast and property is given away. The first baby must always be born in the village of the mother. For months before the birth, the family of the father brings food while the family of the mother makes clothes. At the birth, the fathers mother or sister must be present to take care of the newborn. There is no privacy and the woman is not allowed to cry out in pain. It is not uncommon for 20 to 30 people to be present at the birth, and to stay all night if necessary. Once the cord is cut by the midwife the feast begins. If the baby is a girl, the cord is buried under a mulberry tree to ensure that she will be good at household tasks.Show MoreRelatedComing of Age in Samoa1724 Words   |  7 PagesComing of Age in Somoa Margaret Mead s Coming of Age in Samoa, which was actually her doctoral dissertation, was compiled in a period of six months starting in 1925. Through it, people were given a look at a society not affected by the problems of 20th century industrial America. She illustrated a picture of a society where love was available for the asking and crime was dealt with by exchanging a few mats. This book helps one to realize the large role played by social environment. OneRead MoreComing of Age in Samoa1229 Words   |  5 PagesMargaret Mead’s book â€Å"Coming of Age in Samoa† is an anthropological study of a â€Å"primitive† group of people under completely different cultural conditions than people of western society, namely America. She chose to study a group of adolescents in the South Sea Island of Samoa, a place where one might study a people: â€Å"Whose society has never attained the complexity of our own.† Mead attempts to determine whether or not the experience of turbulence and difficulty during the time of puberty and adolescenceRead MoreAnalysis Of Margaret Meads Coming Of Age In Samoa1227 Words   |  5 PagesOn August 31, 1925, Margaret Mead arrived in Pago Pago, American Samoa to conduct ethnographic research on a particular problem. Prior to her arrival in American Samoa, Mead with the guidance of her mentor Franz Boas, decided to investigate the lives of adolescent girls in Samoa as a focal point of her research. Mead chose this subject matter due to her speculation that the period adolescence within the United States during the 1920s was filled with stress and a period of turbulence; therefore, MeadRead MoreCritical Analysis Of The Mead-Freeman Debate1283 Words   |  6 PagesNature versus Nurture Controversy: Critical Analysis of The Mead-Freeman Debate Research Topic Outline In 1983, Derek Freeman challenged Margaret Mead’s 1928 ethnographic work Coming of Age in Samoa, Freeman asserted that Mead’s conclusion of adolescent behavior conflicted with important facts within the social sciences. Freeman’s critique sparked an intense controversy in anthropology regarding the concept of nature versus nurture. Freeman claimed that Boasians’ insisted on separating cultural determinismRead MoreThe Strengths And Weaknesses Of European Ethnography And / Or Science1283 Words   |  6 Pageswho had the opportunity to work in the pacific before the influence of the western culture in the 1960s was Margaret Mead. She was an American cultural anthropologist who rose to fame after the publication of her book ‘Coming to age in Samoa’ (1928) which concerns adolescence in Samoa. In her book she illustrates her understanding of the Samoans sexual values. Stating that ‘The attitude towards virginity is a curious one. Christianity has of course introduced a moral premium on chastity. The SamoansRead MoreGed 210 Unit 1 Examination Answers960 Words   |  4 Pagescultural diffusion. 1. Margaret Mead got most of her information on the behavior of adolescents in Samoa from: †¢ accounts of travelers and missionaries. †¢ newspaper accounts and government reports. †¢ watching ethnographic films. †¢ interviewing young women. 1. The central object of Mead’s study, Coming of Age in Samoa (1928), was to determine whether or not: †¢ kinship patterns in Samoa could be attributed to diffusion from Chin †¢ the events of World War II had an effect on traditionalRead MoreThe World s Culture And Traditions1881 Words   |  8 Pagesis the only way to get a true representation of the culture and its traditions. This will allow an anthropologist, as it did Mead, to use of cross-cultural comparison to highlight issues within other societies. As a person who left Ethiopia at the age of twenty three to live in Germany for two years and then live in multiple places within the United States I feel like I have been doing field work for the last seven years. I have been total immersed in a culture other than my own since that time andRead MoreCritical Annotation of Watson Reading and Commentary Reading1765 Words   |  7 Pagesintellectuals are making judgements and evaluating the level of significance that actions have for community members particularly on social and cultural side of anthropology (Watson, 1999). In retrospect, observers should give clear details about their gender, age, general education orientation and marital status. Anthropologists usually encounter various challenges in their pursuit for information and data especially in recording of emotions and study of effect (Watson, 1999). The American anthropology has beenRead MoreThe Cultural Anthropology : Margaret Mead890 Words   |  4 Pagesgrandchildren’s lives. She got Mead into watching the actions and behaviors of small children to figure out the reason behind them doing what they do. Mead’s school life was not typical of a child her age. She skipped around with school, some say it was due to all her educators at home. At the young age of eleven she joined the Episcopal Church. Even though she loved ritual and traditions she wanted change. She wanted to be a painter, but because of her educators in her life they persuaded her to peruseRead More From Unilineal Cultural Evolution to Functionalism Essay1048 Words   |  5 Pageseclipse the fame of her tutors, particularly the latter . Mead’s first field study was on the Pacific Island of Samoa, where she studied the lives of the adolescent girls in that culture. From this field study, she produced her famous work Coming of Age in Samoa (1949). In this work, she investigated the relationship between culture and personality by comparing the lives of adolescents in Samoa to those of American youths. She concentrated particularly on the sexual experiences of the girls she studied