Margaret Mead

Paul Shankman

Published by Berghahn Books 2021

Margaret Mead

Paul Shankman

Volume 1 in the series Anthropology's Ancestors

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781800731424

Overview
Contents

About this book

This short volume is an ideal starting point for anyone wanting to learn about, arguably, the most famous anthropologist of the twentieth century.

“Since her death, a steady drip of books about Mead, one of the most significant women in twentieth century social science and American society, has appeared, some interesting, many quite a bit less so. While Shankman’s biography makes use of them, it nevertheless stands out among the better ones, not only for its well-informed and balanced view of Mead, but also for its concision.”—Times Literary Supplement

Tracing Mead’s career as an ethnographer, as the early voice of public anthropology, and as a public figure, this elegantly written biography links the professional and personal sides of her career. The book looks at Mead’s early career through the end of World War II, when she produced her most important anthropological works, as well as her role as a public figure in the post-war period, through the 1960s until her death in 1978. The criticisms of Mead are also discussed and analyzed.

From the introduction:
After her death, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter…. On the other side of the world, Mead’s passing was remembered in a very different context. On the island of Manus off the coast of New Guinea, the people of Pere village also mourned her death. Mead first studied the people of Pere in the late 1920s, returning in the 1950s with further visits thereafter. Over a span of five decades, she touched their lives, and they touched hers. Such was Mead’s stature that they commemorated her death with a ceremony befitting a great leader.

Author / Editor information

Paul Shankman is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the University of Colorado-Boulder. He is the author of The Trashing of Margaret Mead: Anatomy of an Anthropological Controversy (Wisconsin, 2009).

Reviews

“While Shankman’s biography makes use of the [numerous previously published biographies of Margaret Mead], it nevertheless stands out among the better ones, not only for its well-informed and balanced view of Mead, but also for its concision.” • Times Literary Supplement

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
FIGURES Publicly Available Download PDF	viii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
INTRODUCTION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
CHAPTER 1 BEGINNINGS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
CHAPTER 2 FIRST FIELDWORK IN SAMOA Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	18
CHAPTER 3 WRITING COMING OF AGE IN SAMOA Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
CHAPTER 4 MANUS AND THE OMAHA Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	42
CHAPTER 5 ARAPESH, MUNDUGUMOR, AND TCHAMBULI Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	54
CHAPTER 6 CULTURE AND PERSONALITY, AND BALI Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	74
CHAPTER 7 THE WAR YEARS AND NATIONAL CHARACTER STUDIES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	86
CHAPTER 8 THE POSTWAR YEARS AND MANUS REVISITED Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	104
CHAPTER 9 MEAD AS A PUBLIC FIGURE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
CHAPTER 10 WOMEN’S ISSUES AND THE REDBOOK COLUMNS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	126
CHAPTER 11 THE MEAD-FREEMAN CONTROVERSY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	134
CHAPTER 12 LEGACIES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	150
SELECTED WORKS BY MARGARET MEAD Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
REFERENCES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	164
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175

Language: English
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 196
Keywords: Margaret Mead; Anthropologist; American Anthropologist; Cultural Anthropology; Social Anthropology; Coming of Age in Samoa; Samoa; Gregory Bateson; Semiotics; claude levi-strauss; humankind; human behavior; human nature; sociology; academics; biography

eBook

Published: July 16, 2021
ISBN: 9781800731424