Margaret Mead

American anthropologist (1901-1978) · United States · Academics · Died at 76

Margaret Mead is read about 738 times a day, in 74 languages.

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She walked into remote villages with a notebook and came back with arguments that exploded American certainties about sex, adolescence, and what it meant to be male or female - then spent decades as the one anthropologist Middle America actually listened to.

Academics Academic Literature Television Poetry United States Americas 20th Century

A life in dates

1979Presidential Medal of FreedomAward1978Died15 November 1978Honorary Doctor of the University of MiamiAward1976National Women's Hall of FameAward1973“[Mead described the Arapesh as a culture in which both sexes were] placid and contented, unaggressive and noninitiatory, noncompetitive and responsive, warm, docile, and trusting.”In their wordsp. 39 as cited in: Guy R. Lefrançois (1973) Of children; an introduction to child development. p. 65Read the whole statement

1970Kalinga PrizeAward1969William Procter Prize for Scientific AchievementAward1964Elizabeth Blackwell AwardAward1954Kurt Lewin AwardAward1942Gold Medal of the Society of Woman GeographersAward1935“It [this book] is, very simply, an account of how three primitive societies have grouped their social attitudes towards temperament about the very obvious facts of sex-difference.”In their wordsp. xviRead the whole statement

“Human nature is almost unbelievably malleable, responding accurately and contrastingly to contrasting cultural conditions.”In their wordsp. 191Read the whole statement

1930“It is not until science has become a discipline to which the research ability of any mind from any class in society can be attracted that it can become rigorously scientific.”In their wordsp. 406Read the whole statement

1928“During the last hundred years parents and teachers have ceased to take childhood and adolescence for granted.”In their wordsp. 1, Opening of introductionRead the whole statement

“The Samoan puts the burden of amatory success upon the man and believes that women need more initiating, more time for maturing of sexual feeling.”In their wordsp. 91Read the whole statement

1901Born16 December 1901

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

Margaret Mead (1901-1978)

Margaret Mead (1901-1978) (2)

Margaret Mead (1972)

Balinese wayang puppet display

Burbank Athletics Walk of Fame (quotation from Margaret Mead)

Congres Wereldraad van Kerken in Utrecht, antropologe Margaret Mead, Bestanddeelnr 925-8084

Dec16 Woman of the Day

Ford A9744 NLGRF photo contact sheet (1976-05-11)(Gerald Ford Library)

In their own words 10

Margaret Mead

10 statements, newest first

[Mead described the Arapesh as a culture in which both sexes were] placid and contented, unaggressive and noninitiatory, noncompetitive and responsive, warm, docile, and trusting.
1973, p. 39 as cited in: Guy R. Lefrançois (1973) Of children; an introduction to child development. p. 65, Own words
Chief among our gains must be reckoned this possibility of choice, the recognition of many possible ways of life, where other civilizations have recognized only one.
1953, p. 274 (1953 edition), Own words
It [this book] is, very simply, an account of how three primitive societies have grouped their social attitudes towards temperament about the very obvious facts of sex-difference.
1935, p. xvi, Own words

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Awards

Presidential Medal of Freedom1979

Honorary Doctor of the University of Miami1978

National Women's Hall of Fame1976

Kalinga Prize1970

William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement1969

Elizabeth Blackwell Award1964

Kurt Lewin Award1954

Gold Medal of the Society of Woman Geographers1942

Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Family

Parents

Margaret Mead

Partners

Child Mary Catherine Bateson

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About this person

Margaret Mead published Coming of Age in Samoa in 1928, a study of adolescence and sexuality that made her famous at twenty-six. Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies followed in 1935, dismantling assumptions about gender through fieldwork in Papua New Guinea. She ranged widely after that - the Omaha people, Manus, Bali, even an ethnography of American life written to rally support for World War II - and became curator of ethnology at the American Museum of Natural History in 1946. By mid-century she was anthropology's most audible public voice, writing a monthly Redbook column and appearing regularly in mass media. Her reports on sexual attitudes in the South Pacific fed directly into the 1960s revolution, which made her a hero to some and a target for conservatives. She died in 1978, her fieldwork still the subject of sharp academic debate, her influence on how Americans thought about culture impossible to miss.

Country

United States

In common with Margaret

Hubert AquinAlso in Four Families (1960)

Academics from the United States 5

Alexander Arguelles68.8

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