Coming of Age in Samoa: Non-fiction Anthropology Book by Margaret Mead

Cultural Setting of Samoa

Margaret Mead conducted her research in the Manu'a group of American Samoa in 1925. This South Pacific island culture was distinctive for its open social values and relatively stress-free adolescence. Mead observed that Samoan girls transitioned to adulthood without the emotional turmoil common in Western societies. The cultural norms included permissive attitudes toward sexuality, facilitating a smoother coming-of-age experience in contrast to the stricter sexual morals found in industrialized countries.

Anthropological Context and Methodology

Mead’s Coming of Age in Samoa was published in 1928 after about nine months of immersive fieldwork. She combined participant observation, interviews, and psychological testing to explore whether adolescence is biologically or culturally determined as a stressful life stage. Mead argued that the cultural environment in Samoa, where emotional and sexual openness prevailed, created a peaceful adolescent experience unlike that in the United States. Her work significantly contributed to debates about nature versus nurture in human development and youth culture. Although influential and widely used in anthropology courses, her findings sparked controversy over possible romanticization and accuracy, especially regarding Samoan sexual practices. Some anthropologists and Samoan scholars challenged the reliability of her data, suggesting informants might have misrepresented their behavior.

Intellectual Impact and Debates

Mead’s study challenged prevailing Western assumptions by suggesting adolescence varies across cultures and is shaped more by social context than biology. The book popularized cultural relativism and influenced ideas about gender roles and sexuality. However, her portrayal of Samoan youth sexuality provoked criticism for potential exaggeration or idealization, fueling debates about ethnographic validity and researcher bias. Despite its contested accuracy, Coming of Age in Samoa remains a foundational text in anthropology, prompting ongoing dialogue on how cultural frameworks shape psychological development. It also highlights tensions in feminist and postcolonial critiques of early 20th-century anthropological work.

Themes and Questions

Margaret Mead's "Coming of Age in Samoa" presents thought-provoking themes that challenge our understanding of adolescence. By examining cultural influences on development, she raises key questions about the nature of growing up and the factors that shape our experiences.

Central claims

• Nature vs. Nurture: Mead explores whether adolescence is universally stressful or culturally determined.
• Samoan Adolescence: She concludes that Samoan girls navigate adolescence more easily due to their culture.
• Community Raising: Extended family involvement in child-rearing is highlighted.
• Openness to Life: Samoans are open about life events, including birth and death.
• Cultural Comparison: Mead compares Samoan and American adolescent experiences.

Motifs & problems

Mead's work is marked by motifs of openness and community involvement. However, her depiction of Samoan life has been criticized for romanticizing and downplaying complexities, such as adolescent sexuality and social hierarchy.

Study questions

• How does Mead's work contribute to the nature vs. nurture debate?
• What role does community play in Samoan child-rearing?
• How does Samoan culture compare to American culture regarding adolescence?
• What are some criticisms of Mead's portrayal of Samoan life?
• How does Mead's work affect our understanding of adolescent development?

Critical approaches & debates

Coming of Age in Samoa has been a focal point for diverse critical readings. Feminist scholars appreciate Mead’s challenge to Western norms of adolescent sexuality and gender roles, highlighting cultural relativism. Postcolonial critiques analyze how Mead’s romanticized portrayal can exoticize Samoan life and inadvertently support imperialist narratives. Marxist perspectives tend to focus less on Mead’s textual approach but interrogate the socio-economic structures around her fieldwork. There is intense debate over the accuracy of Mead's observations, especially following Derek Freeman’s critique, which argued that Mead misrepresented Samoan sexuality and social conflict, accusing her of idealizing a conflict-free adolescence. These debates raise important questions about ethnographic reflexivity and the politics of representation.

Key passages

A key passage vividly describes Samoan adolescent girls’ experience of sexuality contrasted against Western norms. Mead opens with a metaphor of dawn and nighttime lovers returning home quietly, illustrating a "Walk of No Shame" after sexual encounters. This scene sets the tone for her argument that Samoan youth undergo adolescence without the turmoil seen in American culture, emphasizing cultural variation in developmental experiences. The passage’s function is to challenge assumptions about adolescence as inherently stressful and to foreground cultural context in human development.

Bibliography

Margaret Mead, Coming of Age in Samoa: A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilisation, New York: William Morrow & Company, 1928 (various editions, e.g., 1961 reprint). Derek Freeman, Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and Unmaking of an Anthropological Myth (1983) critiques Mead’s account. Recent scholarship includes Deborah Beatriz Blum’s Coming of Age: The Sexual Awakening of Margaret Mead (2017), which examines the biographical and methodological disputes surrounding the work.