Margaret Mead

Lore & Background

Margaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist, author, and speaker who appeared frequently in mass media during the mid-twentieth century. Her first ethnographic work, based on fieldwork in Samoa, addressed adolescence and sexuality and brought her national attention. She later explored gender roles and personality through fieldwork in Papua New Guinea, and also conducted research with the Omaha people, in Manus, and in Bali. During World War II, she wrote an ethnographic examination of American life to support mobilization. In the 1950s, she coordinated comparative studies on modern cultures while focusing her own work on Russia. Her later career included return visits to Papua New Guinea, Bali, and Samoa for longitudinal studies. She served as curator of ethnology at the American Museum of Natural History and as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Mead is regarded as a founding figure in public anthropology and visual anthropology, having used still and motion photography extensively during fieldwork in Bali. Her reports on attitudes toward sex in South Pacific and Southeast Asian traditional cultures influenced the 1960s sexual revolution, and her association with cultural relativism drew sharp criticism from conservatives.

Reader's Guide

Margaret Mead was a central figure in twentieth-century cultural anthropology, a field that examines behaviors and patterns across different societies. Her career was marked by extensive fieldwork, primarily in the South Pacific and Melanesia, where she lived in communities for long periods to study childhood, adolescence, sexuality, and kinship. She pioneered the use of still and motion photography during research in Bali, creating one of the earliest film archives in the discipline, which earned her recognition as a founder of visual anthropology. During World War II, she applied her methods to studying American culture and national character, coordinating the Columbia University Research in Contemporary Culture project, which analyzed cultural materials and interviews. She also conducted longitudinal studies by returning to previous field sites in Papua New Guinea, Bali, and Samoa. Mead served as curator of ethnology at the American Museum of Natural History for over two decades and was president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Her work on gender roles and sexuality in traditional cultures influenced the 1960s sexual revolution, and her frequent mass media appearances made her anthropology’s most prominent public voice. However, her ethnographies also sparked vigorous academic debate.

Did You Know?

• Margaret Mead is listed among the notable anthropologists in the source.
• The source identifies cultural anthropology as a sub-field of anthropology specializing in the study of different cultures.
• Cultural anthropologists study both small-scale, traditional communities and large-scale, modern societies.
• Many cultural anthropologists live among the culture they are studying.
• Cultural anthropologists can work as professors, for corporations, nonprofit organizations, as well as government agencies.