The Fateful Hoaxing Of Margaret Mead: A Historical Analysis Of Her Samoan ResearchFor most of the twentieth century, Margaret Mead's renowned book Coming of Age in Samoa has validated an antievolutionary anthropological paradigm that assumes that culture is the overwhelming determinant of human behavior. Her account of female adolescent sexuality in Samoa initiated a career that led to Margaret Mead becoming ”indisputably the most publicly celebrated scientist in America.” But what if her study wasn't all it appeared to be? What if, having neglected the problem she had been sent to investigate, she relied at the last moment on the tales of two traveling companions who jokingly misled her about the sexual behavior of Samoan girls? What if her famous study was based on a hoax?In The Fateful Hoaxing of Margaret Mead, Derek Freeman addresses these issues in a detailed historical analysis of Margaret Mead's Samoan researches and of her training in New York by Franz Boas and Ruth Benedict. By examining hitherto unpublished correspondence between Mead, her mentor Franz Boas and others—as well as the sworn testimony of Fa'apua'a Fa'am, one of Mead's traveling companions of 1926—Freeman provides compelling evidence that one of the most influential anthropological studies of the twentieth century was unwittingly based on the mischievous joking of the investigator's informants.But The Fateful Hoaxing of Margaret Mead goes beyond a historical account of how the hoax took place; it is an examination of how Mead's Boasian training set her up to be hoaxed—and set others up to accept her conclusions. The book is more than a correction of scientific error: It is a crucial step toward rethinking the foundations of social science and the overly relativistic worldview of much of the modern world. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
The Incorrigible Idealist | 17 |
Studying with Franz Boas | 29 |
Copyright | |
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The Fateful Hoaxing Of Margaret Mead: A Historical Analysis Of Her Samoan ... Derek Freeman No preview available - 1999 |
Common terms and phrases
adolescent girls Age in Samoa American Anthropologist American Museum American Samoa anthropology April August Barnard College Biological Sciences Bishop Museum Blackberry Winter Board of National Boas's bulletin ceremonial Coming of Age cultural pattern December Edward Craighill Handy ethnological research ethnology ethnology of Manu'a Fa'apua'a and Fofoa Fa'apua'a Fa'amu Faleasao Fitiuta Franz Boas Girl in Samoa heredity and environment hoaxed Honolulu investigation island of Ofu island of Ta'u January Kroeber letter to Boas letter to F letter to Martha Lumā Luther Cressman Manu'a March 14 Margaret Mead Marquesas Martha Mead Mead wrote Mead's Samoan research months Museum of Natural National Research Council National Research Fellowships Natural History Naval Station November October Ofu and Olosega Olosega Pago Pago Polynesia Professor Reo Fortune Ruth Benedict Sapir September sexual behavior Si'ufaga Social Ta'u tion told Tutuila U.S. Naval Dispensary U.S. Navy Vaitogi village virgin weeks York