MARGARET MEAD – författare

By weaving discussions of the personal and professional writings of Ruth Benedict (1887-1948), Margaret Mead offers a deeply insightful portrait of a woman who overcame the barriers of sexism to become one of the most compelling intellectual figures in twentieth-century American life. In this work, Mead defends Benedict's humanistic approach to anthropology and considers her most important works. Benedict's work is also presented in the context of her personal life. Benedict was a shy young woman who felt alienated from her conservative family and society's expectations. Ultimately, she defined her life through her extraordinary work in anthropology and a commitment to public service. Benedict believed that anthropology should speak to contemporary ethical and political questions. In addition to a selection of Benedict's anthropological writings, this edition includes new forewords by two leading Benedict scholars.

By weaving discussions of the personal and professional writings of Ruth Benedict (1887-1948), Margaret Mead offers a deeply insightful portrait of a woman who overcame the barriers of sexism to become one of the most compelling intellectual figures in twentieth-century American life. In this work, Mead defends Benedict's humanistic approach to anthropology and considers her most important works. Benedict's work is also presented in the context of her personal life. Benedict was a shy young woman who felt alienated from her conservative family and society's expectations. Ultimately, she defined her life through her extraordinary work in anthropology and a commitment to public service. Benedict believed that anthropology should speak to contemporary ethical and political questions. In addition to a selection of Benedict's anthropological writings, this edition includes new forewords by two leading Benedict scholars.

For approximately eight months during 1931-1932, anthropologist Margaret Mead lived with and studied the Mountain Arapesh-a segment of the population of the East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. She found a culture based on simplicity, sensitivity, and cooperation. In contrast to the aggressive Arapesh who lived on the plains, both the men and the women of the mountain settlements were found to be, in Mead's word, maternal. The Mountain Arapesh exhibited qualities that many might consider feminine: they were, in general, passive, affectionate, and peaceloving. Though Mead partially explains the male's "femininity" as being due to the type of nourishment available to the Arapesh, she maintains social conditioning to be a factor in the type of lifestyle led by both sexes. Mead's study encapsulates all aspects of the Arapesh culture. She discusses betrothal and marriage customs, sexuality, gender roles, diet, religion, arts, agriculture, and rites of passage. In possibly a portent for the breakdown of traditional roles and beliefs in the latter part of the twentieth century, Mead discusses the purpose of rites of passage in maintaining societal values and social control. Mead also discovered that both male and female parents took an active role in raising their children. Furthermore, it was found that there were few conflicts over property: the Arapesh, having no concept of land ownership, maintained a peaceful existence with each other. In his new introduction to The Mountain Arapesh, Paul B. Roscoe assesses the importance of Mead's work in light of modern anthropological and ethnographic research, as well as how it fits into her own canon of writings. Roscoe discusses findings he culled from a trip to Papua New Guinea in 1991 to clarify some ambiguities in Mead's work. His travels also served to help reconstruct what had happened to the Arapesh since Mead's historic visit in the early 1930s.

For approximately eight months during 1931-1932, anthropologist Margaret Mead lived with and studied the Mountain Arapesh-a segment of the population of the East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. She found a culture based on simplicity, sensitivity, and cooperation. In contrast to the aggressive Arapesh who lived on the plains, both the men and the women of the mountain settlements were found to be, in Mead's word, maternal. The Mountain Arapesh exhibited qualities that many might consider feminine: they were, in general, passive, affectionate, and peaceloving. Though Mead partially explains the male's "femininity" as being due to the type of nourishment available to the Arapesh, she maintains social conditioning to be a factor in the type of lifestyle led by both sexes. Mead's study encapsulates all aspects of the Arapesh culture. She discusses betrothal and marriage customs, sexuality, gender roles, diet, religion, arts, agriculture, and rites of passage. In possibly a portent for the breakdown of traditional roles and beliefs in the latter part of the twentieth century, Mead discusses the purpose of rites of passage in maintaining societal values and social control. Mead also discovered that both male and female parents took an active role in raising their children. Furthermore, it was found that there were few conflicts over property: the Arapesh, having no concept of land ownership, maintained a peaceful existence with each other. In his new introduction to The Mountain Arapesh, Paul B. Roscoe assesses the importance of Mead's work in light of modern anthropological and ethnographic research, as well as how it fits into her own canon of writings. Roscoe discusses findings he culled from a trip to Papua New Guinea in 1991 to clarify some ambiguities in Mead's work. His travels also served to help reconstruct what had happened to the Arapesh since Mead's historic visit in the early 1930s. Margaret Mead (1901-1978) was associated with the American Museum of Natural History in New York for over fifty years, becoming Curator of Ethnology in 1964. She taught at Columbia University and the New School for Social Research as well as a number of other universities. Among her many books is Continuities in Cultural Evolution, available from Transaction Publishers. Paul B. Roscoe is professor of anthropology at the University of Maine. He is a frequent contributor to anthropology journals, including American Anthropologist, American Ethnologist, and Current Anthropology, and is co-editor (with Nancy Lutkehaus) of Gender Rituals: Female Initiation in Melanesia. The 1992 recipient of the Royal Anthropological Institute's Curl Essay Prize, he has an archival specialization in ancient Polynesia.

Reshaping Australia's Economy draws together some of the best economists and public policy analysts in Australia to contribute to a major assessment and 'audit' of the economy. The book assesses the economy's recent performance in achieving an environment which encourages sustainable economic growth with an equitable income distribution. It then goes on to pinpoint what is required to ensure vigorous growth with socially and environmentally acceptable outcomes for the future. Leading economists include Stephen Dowrick, Bob Stimson, Jeff Borland, Mark Wooden, Bill Shields, Bruce Chapman, Glenn Withers, Vince FitzGerald, Kym Anderson and David Throsby. Chapters by contributors such as Ian Manning, Brian Howe, Jane Marceau and Kevin O'Connor consider the issues of equitable distribution of the benefits of growth.

Reshaping Australia's Economy draws together some of the best economists and public policy analysts in Australia to contribute to a major assessment and 'audit' of the economy. The book assesses the economy's recent performance in achieving an environment which encourages sustainable economic growth with an equitable income distribution. It then goes on to pinpoint what is required to ensure vigorous growth with socially and environmentally acceptable outcomes for the future. Leading economists include Stephen Dowrick, Bob Stimson, Jeff Borland, Mark Wooden, Bill Shields, Bruce Chapman, Glenn Withers, Vince FitzGerald, Kym Anderson and David Throsby. Chapters by contributors such as Ian Manning, Brian Howe, Jane Marceau and Kevin O'Connor consider the issues of equitable distribution of the benefits of growth.

Margaret Mead once said, "I have spent most of my life studying the lives of other peoples--faraway peoples--so that Americans might better understand themselves." Continuities in Cultural Evolution is evidence of this devotion. All of Mead's efforts were intended to help others learn about themselves and work toward a more humane and socially responsible society. Scientist, writer, explorer, and teacher, Mead brought the serious work of anthropology into the public consciousness. This volume began as the Terry Lectures, given at Yale in 1957 and was not published until 1964, after extensive reworking. The time she spent on revision is evidence of the importance Mead attached to the subject: the need to develop a truly evolutionary vision of human culture and society. This was desirable in her eyes both in order to reinforce the historical dimension in our ideas about human culture, and to preserve the relevance of historical and cultural diversity to social, economic, and political action. Given the present state of academic and public discourse alike, this volume speaks to us in a language we badly need to recover.

In many respects, this volume is a pioneer effort in anthropological literature. It remains firmly part of the genre of cooperative research, or "interdisciplinary research," though at the time of its original publication that phrase had yet to be coined. Additionally, this work is more theoretical in nature than a faithful anthropological record, as all the essays were written in New York City, on a low budget, and without fieldwork. The significance of these studies lies in the fact that Cooperation and Competition Among Primitive Peoples was the first attempt to think about the very complex problems of cultural character and social structure, coupled with a meticulous execution of comparative study.

Margaret Mead once said, "I have spent most of my life studying the lives of other peoples--faraway peoples--so that Americans might better understand themselves." Continuities in Cultural Evolution is evidence of this devotion. All of Mead's efforts were intended to help others learn about themselves and work toward a more humane and socially responsible society. Scientist, writer, explorer, and teacher, Mead brought the serious work of anthropology into the public consciousness. This volume began as the Terry Lectures, given at Yale in 1957 and was not published until 1964, after extensive reworking. The time she spent on revision is evidence of the importance Mead attached to the subject: the need to develop a truly evolutionary vision of human culture and society. This was desirable in her eyes both in order to reinforce the historical dimension in our ideas about human culture, and to preserve the relevance of historical and cultural diversity to social, economic, and political action. Given the present state of academic and public discourse alike, this volume speaks to us in a language we badly need to recover.

In many respects, this volume is a pioneer effort in anthropological literature. It remains firmly part of the genre of cooperative research, or "interdisciplinary research," though at the time of its original publication that phrase had yet to be coined. Additionally, this work is more theoretical in nature than a faithful anthropological record, as all the essays were written in New York City, on a low budget, and without fieldwork. The significance of these studies lies in the fact that Cooperation and Competition Among Primitive Peoples was the first attempt to think about the very complex problems of cultural character and social structure, coupled with a meticulous execution of comparative study.

The Manus of New Guinea's Pere village were Margaret Mead's most favored community, the people to whom she returned five times before she died in 1978. Kinship in the Admiralty Islands is the classic and only thorough description of their complex rules of marriage and family relations. It draws on Mead's 1928-1929 field work, conducted with her second husband, New Zealander Reo Fortune, and benefits by her being able to cross-check her data with his. Written in 1931, Kinship followed Mead's first and very popular book on the Manus, Growing Up in New Guinea, which was criticized by other anthropologists for being too general in scope. In Kinship Mead succeeded in demonstrating her thorough knowledge of this Melanesian group in the specific terms prized by her scholarly colleagues, while also describing in depth Manus social structure.Kinship in the Admiralty Islands describes an intricate system of social restraints and kinship ties and their impact on the local economy. The Manus' predilection for adoption, for example, allows surrogate fathers to make extended marriage payments, while in the next generation their adopted sons will take on the same responsibility for other young men in the new kin network. Mead reviews other kinship rules, such as avoidance behavior between in-laws of the opposite sex, early betrothals, other forms of adoption, and a range of deference behavior and joking relations among kin. In this work, Mead walks a fine line between functionalist kinship analysis of the British school of Radclife Brown and the cultural-and-personality orientation of Americans in the school of Franz Boas.Jeanne Guillemin's new introduction provides a lively in depth description of Margaret Mead's career in the early days of anthropology, the sometimes negative reactions of her contemporaries to her work, and her reasons for writing Kinship in the Admiralty Islands, as well as Mead's later reactions to how "her Manus" entered the modern world.Margaret Mead was noted for directing her writings to both scholar and laymen alike. Kinship in the Admiralty Islands will be of interest to anthropologists and general readers interested in the peoples of the South Pacific.Margaret Mead was curator of ethnology of the American Museum of Natural History. She was the author of many books including Continuities in Cultural Evolution (available from Transaction), The Study of Culture at a Distance, The Mountain of Arapesh, and From the South Seas: Studies of Adolescence and Sex in Primitive Societies. Jeanne Guillemin is a professor of anthropology at Boston College and editor of Anthropological Realities: Readings in the Science of Culture, also available from Transaction.

For approximately eight months during 1931-1932, anthropologist Margaret Mead lived with and studied the Mountain Arapesh-a segment of the population of the East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. She found a culture based on simplicity, sensitivity, and cooperation. In contrast to the aggressive Arapesh who lived on the plains, both the men and the women of the mountain settlements were found to be, in Mead's word, maternal. The Mountain Arapesh exhibited qualities that many might consider feminine: they were, in general, passive, affectionate, and peaceloving. Though Mead partially explains the male's "femininity" as being due to the type of nourishment available to the Arapesh, she maintains social conditioning to be a factor in the type of lifestyle led by both sexes. Mead's study encapsulates all aspects of the Arapesh culture. She discusses betrothal and marriage customs, sexuality, gender roles, diet, religion, arts, agriculture, and rites of passage. In possibly a portent for the breakdown of traditional roles and beliefs in the latter part of the twentieth century, Mead discusses the purpose of rites of passage in maintaining societal values and social control. Mead also discovered that both male and female parents took an active role in raising their children. Furthermore, it was found that there were few conflicts over property: the Arapesh, having no concept of land ownership, maintained a peaceful existence with each other. In his new introduction to The Mountain Arapesh, Paul B. Roscoe assesses the importance of Mead's work in light of modern anthropological and ethnographic research, as well as how it fits into her own canon of writings. Roscoe discusses findings he culled from a trip to Papua New Guinea in 1991 to clarify some ambiguities in Mead's work. His travels also served to help reconstruct what had happened to the Arapesh since Mead's historic visit in the early 1930s.