Wisdom Wednesdays: Margaret Mead Was Known as the Grandmother of the World, Why?

Name: Margaret Mead
Birth Date: December 1901 – November 1978
Job Functions: Anthropologist, Researcher, Professor, Curator, Author and Globetrotter
Fields: Anthropology
Known For: Studies of culture and personality, child socialization, gender, generational differences, cultural change, and applied anthropology.
Mentors: Ruth Benedict and Franz Boas
Most Famous Publications: Coming of Age in Samoa and Keep Your Powder Dry were national bestsellers.

Margaret Mead had a non-traditional upbringing. Both of her parents worked, her father, Edward Sherwood Mead was an economist at the Wharton School of Business and her mother, Emily Fogg Mead was a social scientist. By the time she was 11 years old, she had moved 60 times and consumed meals prepared by 107 cooks because her father was instrumental in establishing extension branches of the Wharton School across the state of Pennsylvania.

Her mother Emily, and her paternal grandmother, Martha Ramsey Mead a child psychologist, were very hands-on when it came to Margaret’s education at home. She was directed to “collect data for observation and recording – from the structure of leaves to the language patterns and personality differences of her younger siblings could be noted as data.” She observed how other children behaved and took notes on their behaviours. Though her father Edward played a less active role in her upbringing, his discussions with her about his work instilled in her an understanding of using case studies to generalize.

Before Mead became a teenager, she had already accompanied Emily on field trips where she was “engaged in sociological research among Italian immigrants.” From a young age, it was instilled in Mead the importance of not discriminating against others because of their race. She acquired a respect for human equality and differences. The instruction Margaret received from both her mother, grandmother and father allowed her to cultivate the skills she later relied on as an anthropologist.

In her senior year at college, Mead took a course in anthropology taught by Franz Boas. The course profoundly impacted her so much that she decided to become an anthropologist. After she completed her studies she went to study the life of adolescents among the Polynesian on a six-week field trip.

She later moved to the island of Ta’u and remained there for nine months where she studied 68 Samoan girls ages eight to 20, with an emphasis on 25 of these females. Five years later she published her work in Coming of Age in Samoa, which became a national bestseller and catapulted her into worldwide fame.

Mead conducted many more field trips which she also published in book form. For her early research, she did not exercise scientific rigor, which she was criticized for after her death. Her third husband Gregory Bateson, who came from a family of natural scientists, changed that for her, and he enhanced Mead’s methodology and scientific rigor for conducting her research. And Bateson also learned from her more about the observation process.

Bateson and Mead did some innovative work when they used photography as a research tool. While they worked in Bali for two years, they took 38,000 photographs, 759 of which were selected for their book Balinese Character in 1942. The extensive use of film in their work allowed them to record and analyze even the smallest detail of behaviour which would escape the pen-and-paper ethnographer.

During Margaret Mead’s life, she wrote close to 30 books, edited another 12, conducted 24 field trips with major expeditions, gave at least a hundred speeches each year, contributed hundreds of articles, received 28 honorary degrees in humanities, science and law, received 40 distinguished awards for science and citizenships, was president of seven professional organizations, wrote a column for Redbook magazine (1961 – 1978), frequently appeared on talk shows and was one of the most sought after lecturers in the United States. Other body of works she left behind include films, records and tapes.

When Margaret Mead died, the media dubbed her the “grandmother of the world.”

Why Margaret Mead’s work was important

She was the first anthropologist to examine child-rearing practices and the role of women in cross-cultural perspective. She believed that social behaviour, including gender roles were determined by cultural forces and set out to prove it. And most important, she brought anthropology to the public by writing a column in a popular magazine and appearing on talk radio.

Events that shaped Margaret Mead’s life

• Undoubtedly, having Emily Fogg Mead as a mother, and Martha Ramsey Mead as a grandmother helped to shaped Mead’s life because of the instruction they provided.
• Mead’s training under Franz Boas at Columbia University prepared her for the work she did. Franz Boas who was the Dean of American Cultural Anthropology was willing to train women fieldworkers including Ruth Benedict, who became Mead’s lifelong confidante.

Controversial Ideas

Mead also had some very controversial ideas, three of which were:

1. Newlyweds should purchase divorce insurance.
2. An ideal society should consist of people who were homosexual in their youth, heterosexual in middle age, and homosexual again in later years.
3. Instead of the nuclear family, she advocated for “cluster” units comprised of older married couples, singles, and teenagers from other households.

A previous post written in 2009 Can a Group of Thoughtful, Committed Citizens Make a Difference? Margaret Mead Thought So complements this one.

If you cannot view Coming of Age YouTube video please click here.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let's keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.

 Coming of Age: The Sexual Awakening of Margaret Mead Margaret Mead: A Life Coming of Age in Samoa: A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilisation (Perennial Classics) Margaret Mead, some personal views Sex and Temperament: In Three Primitive Societies The Study of Culture At a Distance (Margaret Mead: The Study of Contemporary Western Culture) With a Daughter's Eye: Memoir of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, A

Further Reading

Can a Group of Thoughtful, Committed Citizens Make a Difference? Margaret Mead Thought So

Margaret Mead By Jone Johnson Lewis, About.com Guide  December 16, 2010

Sources Cited/Referenced

American National Biography
International Encyclopedia of Women Scientists
Women in World History
Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia
Dictionary of Women Worldwide
Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science
Encyclopedia of World Biography