Abstract
Mead believed, and I concur, that anthropology is about the variety of ‘life’ notabout a particular discipline, and the anthropologist, a skilled observer of multiple‘lives’, including the planet’s, and their interdependency. Her adherents over thedecades, including Bateson, have sought through a succession of publications anddiscourses to prevent her from being viewed ‘only’ as a ‘discipline’ anthropologistin the tolerated fringes of academia but rather seeing her, through her constantreflection and critique of both society and herself in her prodigious output, to havebeen one of the greatest influences on twentieth century feminism, emancipation,social and individual psychology and cultural studies. Her passion was educationfrom which such issues could not be separated. Marvin Harris (1968) the eminentAmerican cultural anthropologist referred to her work on cultural differences asbeing among the important events in the history of American intellectual thought.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
Educator is used in the way Mead would have used the term, as one which describes all those who have anything to do with the ‘rearing’ of the young, of the passing of culture memes to the young—teachers, parents, society. Later it is used as a generic term for teachers
- 2.
For a list of publications by and about Mead see The Institute for Intercultural Studies website (http://www.interculturalstudies.org/Mead/bibliography.html#byMead).
- 3.
Terms used in this work would not be used now; many of them in a contemporary world are rightly considered offensive. Mead was writing in the discourse forms of her time but she is one of many thinkers in the twentieth century who contributed not only to exposing the dominant cultures of her era to the sophisticated systems of cultures they had dismissed as ‘primitive’, ‘savage’ and ‘exotic’ but pointing out how much the dominant cultures could learn from them.
References
Ala’ilima, F., Wendt, TFS., & McDowell, N. (1984). Book Review Forum 1984. Journal of Pacific Studies, 7(2), 91–140.Bateson, M. C. (2005). Using and abusing the works of the ancestors: Margaret Mead. Pacific Studies, 28(3/4), 162–175.
Cuzzort, R. P., & King, E. W. (2002). Social thought into the 21st century (6th ed.). California: Wadsworth.
Harris, M. (1968). The rise of anthropological theory: A history of theories of culture. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell.
King, E. W. (2002). Social thought into the 21st century (6th ed.). USA: Wadsworth/Thomson.
King, E. W. (2011). Social thought on education. USA: Kindle Edition.
McDowell, N. (2005). Introduction: The essentialization of Mead. Pacific Studies, 28(3/4), 4–18.
Mead, M. (1928). Coming of age in Samoa: A psychological study of primitive youth for western civilization. New York: William Morrow & Company.
Mead, M., & Wolfenstein, M. (Eds.). (1955). Childhood in contemporary cultures. University of Chicago Press.
Mead, M. (1974). Male and female: A study of the sexes in a changing world. USA: Pelican.Male and female: A study of the sexes in a changing world. USA: Pelican.
Mead, M. (1972). Culture and commitment: A study in the generation gap. London: Panther.
Pritchard, F. H. (1929). Great essays of all nations. London: George G. Harrap and Co. Ltd.
Mead in Textor, R. B. (Ed.) (2005). The world ahead: An anthropologist anticipates the future. In Margaret Mead: The study of western contemporary cultures (Vol. 6). USA: Berghahn Books.
Wynne, L. (2000). Images in psychiatry: Margaret Mead Ph.D 1901–1978. American Journal of Psychiatry, 157(12), 1948.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 the Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Maguire, K. (2015). Introduction. In: Margaret Mead. SpringerBriefs in Education(). Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9309-4_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9309-4_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-9308-7
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-9309-4
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)