The American anthropologist Margaret Mead became world famous for her work on the socialization of children in Polynesia. Her early work "Growing Up in Samoa" is especially famous. Psychologist and scientist founded the Institute for Comparative Cultural Studies. Mead is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences.
Researcher and scientist Margaret Mead is rightfully called a typical representative of the Roaring Twenties. She not only achieved recognition, but also remained one of the most controversial persons in the scientific world.
Choosing your life's work
The biography of the future celebrity began in 1901. The child was born on December 16 in Philadelphia. Mother worked with immigrants as a sociologist, father was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Business School.
Since her youth, Margaret has taken an active position. She decided to pursue a career in science. Education provided the girl with a degree in psychology at 22, and the next year the talented student successfully defended her master's degree. The next step was a trip to Polynesia. So Margaret took up new research.
In the wake of the riots that began throughout the twenties, the theory put forward by Sigmund Freud emerged. He assured that in this way the suppression of sexuality comes out. Instead of war, she could calm down the radical youth. The idea came up before the hippie movement.
These views were understood by the girl's scientific advisor Franz Boas. At his suggestion, the student went to Samoa.
The task of the girl was to prove the absence of the problem of generations and sexual taboos in an archaic society. Mead interviewed numerous local residents. Based on their results, a book was written. It confirmed the assumption of Mead's scientific adviser about the relationship between the conflict between fathers and children and sexual enslavement. Such work could not be ignored. The composition caused a lot of controversy. In the wake of the resonance, Mead has become one of the most prominent anthropologists.
Loud glory
In the book, Mead argued that adolescents in Samoa grow up in complete freedom. At the same time, they do not have any disturbances. The entire information space exploded.
But Mead's conclusions became the main arguments of the freedom fighters. The work itself has firmly taken a special place in American history and culture.
Later, Margaret studied many other phenomena. All of them, in her opinion, are directly related to the distribution of power, socialization, the transfer of knowledge to new generations and the customs prevailing in society. At the same time, not the least importance was attached to the topic of sexuality.
By that time, accusations had been made of bias in Mead's first work. Margaret was not embarrassed by such accusations. With the development of science, she was able to wrap up even her own mistakes.
The girl herself adhered to emancipation in the relationship. She was attracted by the scientists themselves and by interesting discussions.
Margaret maintained a relationship with both Ruth Benedict and Rhoda Metro, the outstanding anthropologists of her time. Despite the fact that Mead became a symbol of women's freedom, her writings formed the basis of the theory of female enslavement in the homeland. Mead's first work in hippie ideology was used as a confirmation of the inadmissibility of refusal to a man.
Major achievements
Returning from Polynesia in 1926, Mead began work as a curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. At Columbia University, she defended her dissertation in 1929, becoming a doctor of philosophy.
Margaret often appeared on television in the sixties and seventies, advocating for freedom of relations. As a result, she became super popular with students.
Margaret was the first to study the culture of raising children from different nations. On socializing them in primitive societies, she collected a huge amount of material.
The scientist put forward theories about the nature of parental feelings, the role of mothers and fathers, initiation. She gained unprecedented popularity as an ethnographer. According to Margaret, there were three types of transfer of experience to generations in history:
- prefigurative;
- cofigurative;
- postfigurative.
The prefigurative ones are represented by the co-creation of students and teachers. Cooperation between children and adults has been reflected in the last century. The culture is united by an electronic communications network. The lifestyle does not weigh on children. Interpersonal conflicts against the background of a high rate of knowledge renewal among young people are intensifying. Such culture is appreciated for the future.
All generations learn from equals, that is, peers. As a result, the usual family is being replaced by the youth group. A special subculture is emerging.
In post-figurative, children learn from their parents. Relationships in groups adhere to strict regulations. They do not approve of innovations; loyalty to traditions and continuity are held in high esteem.
Summarizing
The work propelled Mil into a lifetime classics. She was called a scientist who made an invaluable contribution to understanding culture and the problem of socialization.
Interest in Mead's early work revived in 1983. Anthropologist Freeman accused Mead of falsifying the facts. He assured that according to his research, society in Samoa was not at all as prosperous as Margaret described it.
Subsequent works were more believable. Their merit is that thanks to them, Mead has not lost her reputation. But questions arose as to why, even when the work was republished in 1979, there were no questions about obtaining data.
As a result, the community concluded that during the polls, the interlocutors answer the questions with lies, wishing to please the researcher. In the end, everyone agreed that Margaret was the victim of a joke of the local population, who wanted to teach her a lesson for too frank questions.
She made several attempts to improve her personal life. The first choice of an energetic girl was a fellow student. The family did not last long and fell apart. In 1936, Gregory Bateson became the husband of an energetic explorer. She spent 14 years with him. The only child appeared in the union, the daughter of a learned lady. They parted in 1950. The third husband did not live with his chosen one for long. This marriage also ended in failure.
The anthropologist and psychologist left her life in 1978, on November 15. It has a crater named on Venus. In 1979, the image of Margaret Mead appeared on the Supersisters collectible cards.
