Margaret Mead
1901-1978
American Anthropologist
Margaret Mead was the first major anthropologist to study the fine details of child-rearing practices and learning theory within social groups. Based on her observations, Mead proposed that children learned through "imprinting." Much of Mead's work was interdisciplinaryin nature, borrowing freely from psychology, anthropology, sociology, and other fields.
Mead was born in Pennsylvania, the oldest of four children. Her parents were teachers who taught Mead progressive values (by early twentieth-century standards) regarding the role of women in society. Mead's mother was a suffragette (a lobbyist for women's right to vote) who encouraged Mead to mix with children of all racial, ethnic, and economic backgrounds.
Mead undertook her college studies at Barnard College and became enthralled with anthropology. After graduating in 1923, she married and started graduate school at Columbia University. While still a graduate student, Mead made her first serious field observations on an extended, yearlong visit to the Samoan islands. After repeated trips, Mead became deeply aware of the fact that Samoan cultural and sexuality patterns differed greatly from those in the West. Mead concluded that human values depend on time and environment, not inherited traits. This phraseology and disposition were to become Mead trademarks. Her conclusions profoundly influenced the subsequent course of sociological research and thought.
Mead's 1928 publication of Coming of Age in Samoa, a study of adolescent behavior in a Polynesian society, signaled major changes in approaches to the formulation of social theory. Mead became an instant celebrity over the book's frank and honest descriptions of Samoan female sexual behavior.
Mead is considered one of the founders of the "culture and personality" school among anthropologists. Throughout her career she maintained her belief in cultural determinism.
Mead's celebrity allowed her to become a sought after, though controversial, authority on American social culture. Mead's observations on sex and family structure made her simultaneously loved and loathed by millions.
Mead went through several marriages and had a daughter by her third husband in 1939. During World War II, Mead worked to foster British and American relations. In 1942 she published a critical book about American culture titled, And Keep Your Powder Dry: An Anthropologist Looks at America.
Mead's unique perspectives on child rearing prompted her to allow her daughter to become a test subject for Dr. Benjamin Spock's new theories of child rearing. Spock advocated overturning what he described as overly rigid child-rearing practices. (For example, he contended that children should be fed on demand rather than on schedule.) Mead's daughter was thus among the first of millions of "Spock babies" to follow. In 1969 Time magazine named Mead "Mother of the Year."
Margaret Mead. (Corbis Corporation. Reproduced with permission.)Mead was anything but a remote and lofty scholar who could be easily dismissed as out of touch with the American public. For nearly two decades, through the tumultuous 1960s and 1970s, Mead co-authored an advice column for Redbook magazine. In her column Mead often offered commentaries about changing gender roles and the decline of the extended family. Mead also tackled various contemporary issues, such as the 1960s "generation gap" and environmentalism, with her usual frankness. In particular, Mead became concerned with the ill-effects of overpopulation and became an outspoken advocate for birth control.
Mead served in various capacities with the American Museum of Natural History in New York, including curator. At age 72, Mead was elected and served as president of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science. In 1979 she was posthumously awarded the United States' highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Mead died of cancer in 1978.
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