The Trashing of Margaret Mead: Anatomy of an Anthropological Controversy (Studies in American Thought and Culture) - Tapa blanda

A superbly crafted and highly readable book that essentially lays the Mead-Freeman controversy to rest. - James Cote, author of Adolescent Storm and Stress: An Evaluation of the Mead-Freeman Controversy ""There is simply no other book like it. What Shankman does, very successfully, is analyze the nature of the controversy in meticulous detail, examine the main participants in the debate, and evaluate the quality of the arguments on both sides. Valuable to anthropologists and other academics, the book is also eminently accessible to any interested layperson."" - Nancy McDowell, author of The Mundugumor: From the Field Notes of Margaret Mead and Reo Fortune ""A compelling read about the controversy. Shankman, whose anthropological engagement with Samoa covers forty years and who met both Freeman and Mead, presents measured accounts of their careers, reasons for studying Samoa, and personal lives."" - Roger Sanjek, author of The Future of Us All: Race and Neighborhood Politics in New York City

In 1928 Margaret Mead published ""Coming of Age in Samoa"", a fascinating study of the lives of adolescent girls that transformed Mead herself into an academic celebrity. In 1983 anthropologist Derek Freeman published a scathing critique of Mead's Samoan research, badly damaging her reputation. Resonating beyond academic circles, his case against Mead tapped into important public concerns of the 1980s, including sexual permissiveness, cultural relativism, and the nature/nurture debate. In venues from the ""New York Times"" to the TV show ""Donahue"", Freeman argued that Mead had been 'hoaxed' by Samoans whose innocent lies she took at face value. In ""The Trashing of Margaret Mead"", Paul Shankman explores the many dimensions of the Mead-Freeman controversy as it developed publicly and as it played out privately, including the personal relationships, professional rivalries, and larger-than-life personalities that drove it. Providing a critical perspective on Freeman's arguments, Shankman reviews key questions about Samoan sexuality, the alleged hoaxing of Mead, and the meaning of the controversy. Why were Freeman's arguments so readily accepted by pundits outside the field of anthropology? What did Samoans themselves think? Can Mead's reputation be salvaged from the quicksand of controversy? Written in an engaging, clear style and based on a careful review of the evidence, ""The Trashing of Margaret Mead"" illuminates questions of enduring significance to the academy and beyond.