Mead, Margaret | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

Margaret Mead

Born December 16, 1901 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Died November 15, 1978 (New York City, New York)

Anthropologist

Margaret Mead's pioneering studies documenting the cultural influences on human development and behavior made her the most famous anthropologist (a scientist who studies human origins, cultures, and societies) of the twentieth century. It was during the Roaring Twenties that Mead produced her most famous work, Coming of Age in Samoa (1928). This book was based on Mead's fieldwork in that Pacific Island nation, where she lived with and studied a group of teenage girls. She found that Samoans experienced adolescence as a much less stressful transition to adulthood than did teenagers in the United States or Europe. Controversial due both to its sexual subject matter and its conclusions, Coming of Age in Samoa was a best-seller in an era when some found the major advances occurring in science, technology, and sociology troubling. Both Mead's work and her distinguished career, which began at a time when few women were able to reach the top of any professional field, were revolutionary.

Developing a Passion for Anthropology

Margaret Mead grew up in an intellectual, unconventional family. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the beginning of the twentieth century, she was the oldest of four children.

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