Coming of Age in Samoa

E78339

Coming of Age in Samoa is a landmark 1928 anthropological study by Margaret Mead that examines Samoan adolescence to challenge Western assumptions about human development and culture.


Statements (50)
Predicate Object
instanceOf anthropological study
book
aimsTo challenge Western assumptions about adolescence
demonstrate cultural variability in human development
author Margaret Mead
conclusion adolescence is not inherently stressful
adolescent turmoil is shaped by culture rather than biology alone
controversy claims of misrepresentation of Samoan culture
criticisms of Mead’s methods
countryOfOrigin United States
criticizedBy Derek Freeman
describedAs classic of ethnographic literature
landmark work in anthropology
describes Samoan attitudes toward sexuality
Samoan child-rearing practices
Samoan courtship practices
Samoan household organization
Samoan kinship patterns
fieldworkDuration approximately nine months
fieldworkLocation Ta‘ū
focusesOn female adolescence
sexual norms
socialization
genre cultural anthropology
ethnography
hasEdition 1939 edition
1950s edition
later reprints
hasPart comparisons between Samoan and American adolescence
ethnographic case studies
influenced American cultural anthropology
developmental psychology
feminist thought
public debates about nature versus nurture
influencedBy Franz Boas
language English
mainSubject Samoan adolescence
Samoan culture
adolescent development
methodology interviews
participant observation
publicationYear 1928
publisher William Morrow
setting American Samoa
subjectOf scholarly debates on ethnographic validity
supervisedBy Franz Boas
theoreticalOrientation cultural relativism
culture and personality school
timeOfFieldwork 1925
1926


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