Description
Book SynopsisIn 1928, Margaret Mead published her first book, entitled Coming of Age in Samoa, in which she described to the Western world an exotic culture where people came of age with a minimum of storm and stress. In 1983, Derek Freeman, an Australian anthropologist, published a book in which he systematically attacked Mead's conclusions about that culture and the way people came of age. Since then, a great deal of attention has been directed toward the Mead-Freeman controversy. This book contributes to that controversy and to the general understanding of adolescent storm and stress by undertaking an interdisciplinary analysis of Freeman's criticisms and an assessment of the plausibility of Mead's work. Addressing the issue of what has become of Mead's Samoa of the 1920s, this book historically tracks the nature of the coming of age in Samoa to the present, in order to give the reader an understanding of the circumstances confronting young people in contemporary Samoa. It shows that M
Trade Review
"Côté succeeds in presenting an arresting description of Samoan adolescence in historical perspective, making clear how coming of age has become more stressful, confusing, and undermined by the forces of modernization."
—Journal of Adolescence
Table of ContentsContents: The Mead-Freeman Controversy: Mead on Trial. Freeman's Case Against Mead. Mead's Culpability. A Social History of Adolescence in Samoa: Precontact Culture. A Social History of Adolescence in Samoa: Changes in Samoan Culture. Mead's Samoa. Coming of Age in Contemporary Samoa. Conclusion: Mead's Samoa in Sociological Perspective.
