Coming of Age in Samoa
A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilisation
HarperCollins · Print & ebook · February 20, 2001
The groundbreaking classic detailing Margaret Mead's first field work at age 23, establishing Mead’s core insights into childhood and culture that challenged and changed our view of life.
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- Who it’s for
- A closely observed classic asks how culture shapes adolescence, sexuality, and the lives of girls.
- Themes
- Culture and development, Adolescent girls’ lives, Cultural influences on sexuality
- Genres
- How Cultures Work, Teen Psychology, Human Sexuality
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The groundbreaking classic detailing Margaret Mead's first field work at age 23, establishing Mead’s core insights into childhood and culture that challenged and changed our view of life. Rarely do science and literature come together in the same book. When they do -- as in Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, for example -- they become classics, quoted and studied by scholars and the general public alike.
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Margaret Mead accomplished this remarkable feat not once but several times, beginning with Coming of Age in Samoa. It details her historic journey to American Samoa, taken when she was just twenty-three, where she did her first fieldwork. Here, for the first time, she presented to the public the idea that the individual experience of developmental stages could be shaped by cultural demands and expectations. Adolescence, she wrote, might be more or less stormy, and sexual development more or less problematic in different cultures. Mead’s revolutionary book, dedicated to the girls of Tau, was one of the first studies to pay attention to girls’ lives. Her keen observations contain many ideas that are still powerful today—that sexuality is culturally-shaped, that adolescence need not be stressful, and that the lives of adolescent girls are worthy of attention and respect. Now this groundbreaking, beautifully written work as been reissued for the centennial of Mead's birth, featuring introductions by Mary Pipher, Ph.D. (Reviving Ophelia) and by Mead's daughter, Mary Catherine Bateso (Composing a Life).
Culture and Growing Up
A closely observed classic asks how culture shapes adolescence, sexuality, and the lives of girls.
Come here for
- A fresh lens on childhood and cultural expectations
- Attention to adolescent girls’ lives
Expect
- First fieldwork rendered with scientific insight and literary care
- Ideas about development that challenge familiar assumptions
Where it sits
| How Cultures Work | 67% |
|---|---|
| Teen Psychology | 65% |
| Human Sexuality | 41% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- The Teenage Years
- Co-Parenting
- Family Resources
- Raising School-Age Kids
Show all 8 publisher categories
- Raising Teenagers
- Teen Psychology
- Evolution
- History of Science
- Authors
- Margaret Mead
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Published
- February 20, 2001
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Culture and development · Adolescent girls’ lives · Cultural influences on sexuality
- Reading lane
- The Teenage Years