Margaret Mead and Samoa: Coming of Age in Fact and Fiction

Derek Freeman's 1983 critique of Margaret Mead's Coming of Age in Samoa has prompted one of the most heated debates in recent anthropological memory. Yet even Mead's defenders have generally accepted the view that she saw Samoa as a romantic paradise. Here I argue that a careful reading of Coming of Age shows quite a different picture. In my reanalysis, Mead's work emerges as complex and somewhat enigmatic, with facile conclusions standing in contrast to much rich and sensitive ethnography. My goal in this article is to highlight what Mead actually said, pointing up the notable discrepancy between the popular perception and her actual account.     

Telling a Tale: Margaret Mead's Photographic Portraits of Fa'amotu,a Samoan Tāupou

In 1925 Margaret Mead spent 10 days in High Chief Ufuti's household in the village of Vaitogi, Tutuila, before sailing to Ta'u where she conducted most of her research on Samoan adolescence. In Vaitogi, Mead took many photographs of Fa'amotu, Ufuti's t # upou daughter, several of which appeared in Coming of Age in Samoa . This article examines a number of intertwined issues of visual representation which may have prompted Mead to use a disproportionate number of pictures of Fa'amotu in early editions of her book. Mead's approach to photographic representation and issues such as collaboration, performance, typicality, marketability, anonymity, and acknowledgement are examined through her photographs and writings.     

The Tchambuli View of Persons: A Critique of Individualism in the Works of Mead and Chodorow

In Sex and Temperament and Male and Female, Margaret Mead demonstrated that significant differences exist in the dispositions of males and females in particular cultures. In her unpublished field notes she also provided a partial explanation of why such differences should exist. In this paper I evaluate her explanation of the basis of gender differences in the particular culture of the Tchambuli, and place it within the context of more recent social psychology, particularly Nancy Chodorow's psychoanalytic study of female personality. Prompted by the recent reconsideration of Mead's work — a reconsideration I believe to be as inaccurately focused on Western categories of understanding as Mead herself was — I argue that both Mead and Chodorow fail to consider adequately non-Western views of the self in explaining gender differences.
DEBORAH GEWERTZ is Associate Professor, Amherst College, and Research Fellow. Department of Anthropology. P.O. Box 4. Australian National University. Canberra ACT 2600. Australia.     

The importance of ‘tooglies’ to the ethnography of F.E. Williams,government anthropologist

The theoretical orientation, encapsulated in the semi‐serious concept of ‘tooglies'of F.E. Williams, government anthropologist for the Territory of Papua in the inter‐war period, is considered. His ideas about culture change are contrasted with those of Bronislaw Malinowski, who acted as his mentor at one time. His treatment of the social organisational anomaly of Sogeri Koiari ‘sex affiliation’, often cited as a case of parallel bilineal descent, is compared with Margaret Mead's analysis of the ‘Mundugumor ropes’, which is classed as the opposite, cross‐sex bilineal descent. It is shown that Williams was able to get a clearer insight into this anomalous data than Mead and Fortune, and, on the whole, worked with an understanding of culture and Papuan social organisation that presages the relational approach of today.     

Continuities in Insight and Innovation: Toward a Biography of Margaret Mead

A biographical study of Margaret Mead presents a special opportunity for anthropologists to look at the relationship between the personality of a researcher, the researcher's own culture, and the scientific product, because of Mead's own awareness of disciplined subjectivity and the richness of the available scientific and personal record. Concurrently, it will be possible to consider her innovations and conservatisms in family life and organizational structure as expressions of anthropological insight. [ researcher bias, field methods, history of anthropology, innovation, life history ]     

From Margaret Mead's Field Notes: What Counted as "Sex" in Samoa?

Derek Freeman based his criticism of Margaret Mead's claim of sexual freedom for adolescent girls in Samoa on two premises. The first—that there was a "cult of virginity"—has been disproved by scholars. The second—that the low incidence of premarital pregnancy precluded sexual freedom—has not been adequately addressed. Sexual freedom and a low incidence of pregnancy were not mutually exclusive. The key lies in consideration of what counted as sex in Samoa at the time.     

‘Being Honest to my Science’: Reo Fortune and J.H.P. Murray, 1927-301

Reo Fortune worked on Tewara Island in the D'Entrecasteaux group in the Australian Territory of Papua from November 1927 to May 1928. His relations with the Lieutenant-Governor J.H.P. Murray and the government anthropologist F.E. Williams were problematic. In this paper I argue that Fortune's actions, along with increasing tension between Murray and Radcliffe-Brown, were sufficient for a change in Murray's attitude towards continued independent anthropological research in Papua. After 1930, despite his early support for colonial officers receiving training in anthropology, Murray sent no cadets or officers for training in the university. With the exceptions of Geza Roheim and Paul Wirz, both in 1930, Williams conducted all anthropological research in Papua until the outbreak of the Pacific War in December 1941.     

Some Implications of Clark Wissler's Race Theory

A recent attempt to place the name of Clark Wissler in a central position in the history of anthropology ignores his blatant racism. Wissler's racism was evident not only in scholarly and popular circles, but, as well, was employed by the United States government to give ‘scientific’ status to its Immigration Act of 1924. The Act favoured the inflow of Northwest Europeans at the expense of Eastern European Jews and other groups who had been immigrating in massive numbers, and whose presence had become increasingly unwelcome. It was used by the Nazi propaganda machine to justify German anti-Semitism in 1933 and thereafter, and by the United States Department of State to turn away the eventual victims of Nazi genocide. Wissler thus provides a profound scholarly and human contrast to Franz Boas, who publicly deplored racism and immigration restriction. Boas' stand as a ‘citizen-scientist’ partly accounts for his under-evaluation by later anthropologists, most recently by Derek Freeman in his Margaret Mead and Samoa.     

From Documentation to Representation: Recovering the Films of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson

Although the seven films made by Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, based on footage shot in Bali and New Guinea during 1936–39, are identified as a landmark in various histories of ethnographic film, these films have been the subject of remarkably little analysis in the anthropological literature. In contrast, their photographic work has received much more extended commentary. Making a close reading of the films in their final edited form, this article aims to recover this aspect of Mead and Bateson's work from its relative neglect. We consider the circumstances under which the films were made, the theoretical ideas that informed them, and the methods employed in shooting and editing. Notwithstanding recent skepticism about both the theoretical ideas and the quality of the research on which Mead and Bateson's work in Bali was based, as well as the naiveté of some of the filmmaking ideas found in the films themselves, when considered as a group, they continue to be interesting examples of a particular transitional phase in the history of ethnographic film.     

Unofficial Histories: A Vision of Anthropology from the Margins

Initially given as the Presidential Address at the 100th Meeting of the AAA, this article examines the contributions women and minority anthropologists who have struggled to gain a place at the center of the discipline. Despite 25 years of scholarship on women and minorities, anthropology needs to go further in terms of paying attention to their pioneering efforts and the breadth of their scholarship. The article explores four currently important areas of creativity: (1) the transformation of field research through problem-oriented participant observation and "native anthropology," as exemplified by George Hunt, the young Margaret Mead, Delmos Jones; (2) the evolution of more dialogical forms of ethnographic writing, as pursued by Elsie Clews Parsons, Gladys Reichard, Ella Deloria, and Zora Neale Hurston; (3) sources of critique, as embodied in the work of Ruth Benedict and Michelle Rosaldo; (4) forms of activism, engaged in by Anita McGee, Benedict, Mead, and Alfonzo Ortiz.     

The evolutionary history of childbirth

Consideration of the evolutionary and cross-cultural history of childbirth reveals many differences between the ways in which most human females have experienced childbirth and the ways in which most women in contemporary industrialized obstetric settings experience the event. In this paper I review two of these differences: the pain and anxiety of labor and delivery and the discontinuity of care provided for the mother and infant. I argue that much of the dissatisfaction with birth practices in the United States results from the failure of modern obstetric practice to meet the evolved needs of mothers and infants. Wenda Trevathan is an associate professor of anthropology at New Mexico State University. Her research interests focus on evolutionary and biosocial aspects of human female reproductive behavior, including childbirth, sexuality, and menopause. She is the recipient of the 1990 Margaret Mead Award and has received midwifery training.     

How to tell a sea monster: molecular discrimination of large marine animals of the North Atlantic

Remains of large marine animals that wash onshore can be difficult to identify due to decomposition and loss of external body parts, and in consequence may be dubbed "sea monsters." DNA that survives in such carcasses can provide a basis of identification. One such creature washed ashore at St. Bernard's, Fortune Bay, Newfoundland, in August 2001. DNA was extracted from the carcass and enzymatically amplified by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR): the mitochondrial NADH2 DNA sequence was identified as that of a sperm whale (Physeter catodon). Amplification and sequencing of cryptozoological DNA with "universal" PCR primers with broad specificity to vertebrate taxa and comparison with species in the GenBank taxonomic database is an effective means of discriminating otherwise unidentifiable large marine creatures.     

No Story Is Ever Just a Story

The 41 films at the 2004 Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival showcased a multiplicity of styles and approaches, thus widening the perspective of "what counts" as ethnographic film. The two main events—A Tribute to Jean Rouch and Native Voices—epitomized the festival's commitment to diversity and creative talent. Despite the festival's awkward location in the American Museum of Natural History, the films tackled challenging political subjects and directly addressed questions of representation. Postscreening musical performances, informational panels, and audience–director discussion sessions shaped the festival itself as an ethnographic experience, as well as being a venue for the year's best documentary films. Festival highlights were Raven Tales: How Raven Stole the Sun (2004), Mr. Patterns (2004), and Beauty Academy of Kabul (2004).     

Survival and detection of bacteria in an aquatic environment

A genetically engineered plasmid, pPSA131, was used as a DNA probe to detect homologous DNA in Escherichia coli HB101(pPSA131) after it was mixed with aquatic microorganisms from Lake Mead, Nevada, water samples. An isolate from the pLAFR1 chromosomal library of Pseudomonas syringae Cit 7 was used to detect parent P. syringae Cit 7 that had been mixed with Lake Mead water. E. coli(pPSA131) was kept in variously treated samples of lake water or buffer, and its survival was measured by viable cell counting on modified Luria-Bertani (LB) agar. Full-strength LB agar proved better than 0.1 x LB agar at recovering E. coli(pPSA131) after survival in low-nutrient environments. Survival of E. coli(pPSA131) remained high in filtered (0.22-micron pore size) lake water and salts buffer on both selective and nonselective agars but was lower in untreated lake water or lake water filtered with a 0.8-micron-pore-size membrane. Total recoverable colonies grown on LB agar were higher when lake water was filter treated (0.8-micron pore size) than when lake water was untreated. Microorganisms recovered from lake water alone grew rapidly on nonselective media, probably because of the "bottle effect." After being mixed with Lake Mead water, E. coli(pPSA131) and P. syringae were detected by colony blotting with non-radioactively labeled DNA probes. E. coli(pPSA131) were recovered at three times during 48 h from variously treated samples of lake water and from a mixture with Lake Mead water organisms. Colonies were supported on either nonselective or selective agar for comparison.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

The story catches you and you fall down: tragedy,ethnography, and "cultural competence"

Anne Fadiman's The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures (Noonday Press, 1997) is widely used in "cultural competence" efforts within U.S. medical school curricula. This article addresses the relationship between theory, narrative form, and teaching through a close critical reading of that book that is informed by theories of tragedy and ethnographies of medicine. I argue that The Spirit Catches You is so influential as ethnography because it is so moving as a story; it is so moving as a story because it works so well as tragedy; and it works so well as tragedy precisely because of the static, reified, essentialist understanding of "culture" from which it proceeds. If professional anthropologists wish our own best work to speak to "apparitions of culture" within medicine and other "cultures of no culture," I suggest that we must find compelling new narrative forms in which to convey more complex understandings of "culture."     

Survival and detection of bacteria in an aquatic environment.

A genetically engineered plasmid, pPSA131, was used as a DNA probe to detect homologous DNA in Escherichia coli HB101(pPSA131) after it was mixed with aquatic microorganisms from Lake Mead, Nevada, water samples. An isolate from the pLAFR1 chromosomal library of Pseudomonas syringae Cit 7 was used to detect parent P. syringae Cit 7 that had been mixed with Lake Mead water. E. coli(pPSA131) was kept in variously treated samples of lake water or buffer, and its survival was measured by viable cell counting on modified Luria-Bertani (LB) agar. Full-strength LB agar proved better than 0.1 x LB agar at recovering E. coli(pPSA131) after survival in low-nutrient environments. Survival of E. coli(pPSA131) remained high in filtered (0.22-micron pore size) lake water and salts buffer on both selective and nonselective agars but was lower in untreated lake water or lake water filtered with a 0.8-micron-pore-size membrane. Total recoverable colonies grown on LB agar were higher when lake water was filter treated (0.8-micron pore size) than when lake water was untreated. Microorganisms recovered from lake water alone grew rapidly on nonselective media, probably because of the "bottle effect." After being mixed with Lake Mead water, E. coli(pPSA131) and P. syringae were detected by colony blotting with non-radioactively labeled DNA probes. E. coli(pPSA131) were recovered at three times during 48 h from variously treated samples of lake water and from a mixture with Lake Mead water organisms. Colonies were supported on either nonselective or selective agar for comparison.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Margaret Mee's Amazon. Diaries of an artist explorer. * Margaret Mee. 2003. * Woodbridge Suffolk, UK: Antique Collectors' Club. * {pound}29{middle dot}50 (hardback). 320 pp, 400 colour illustrations

‘Delight’ said CharlesDarwin in his diaries in 1832, ‘is a weak term to expressthe feelings of a naturalist who, for the first time, has wanderedby himself in a Brazilian forest’. These feelings musthave been those which drove Margaret Mee to explore the Brazilianjungles on numerous expeditions between 1958 and 1964, creatingwonderful pictures despite all kinds of difficulties encounteredin this hostile world. And these feelings were also those Ihad when I read this book: delight about her precise drawingsand life-like paintings, which are extremely expressive from     

"The Vulgar Spirit of Blogging": On Language, Culture, and Power in Persian Weblogestan

This article is an ethnographic study of Persian-language weblogs (blogs), focusing on a divisive argument among Iranian bloggers that came to be known as the "vulgarity debate." Sparked by a controversial blogger who ridiculed assertions that Islam was compatible with human rights, the debate revolved around the claim that blogging had a "vulgar spirit" that made it easy for everything from standards of writing to principles of logical reasoning to be undermined. My study focuses primarily on the linguistic side of the controversy: I analyze blogging as an emergent speech genre and identify the structural features and social interactions that make this genre seem "vulgar." I also examine the controversy as a confrontation between bloggers with unequal access to cultural capital and a struggle over "intellectualist" hegemony. In the conclusion, I use the construct of "deep play" to weave together multiple layers of structure, explanation, and meaning in the debate.     

Remapping of the RP15 locus for X-linked cone-rod degeneration to Xp11.4-p21.1, and identification of a de novo insertion in the RPGR exon ORF15

X-linked forms of retinitis pigmentosa (XLRP) are among the most severe, because of their early onset, often leading to significant vision loss before the 4th decade. Previously, the RP15 locus was assigned to Xp22, by linkage analysis of a single pedigree with "X-linked dominant cone-rod degeneration." After clinical reevaluation of a female in this pedigree identified her as affected, we remapped the disease to a 19.5-cM interval (DXS1219-DXS993) at Xp11.4-p21.1. This new interval overlapped both RP3 (RPGR) and COD1. Sequencing of the previously published exons of RPGR revealed no mutations, but a de novo insertion was detected in the new RPGR exon, ORF15. The identification of an RPGR mutation in a family with a severe form of cone and rod degeneration suggests that RPGR mutations may encompass a broader phenotypic spectrum than has previously been recognized in "typical" retinitis pigmentosa.