Instead, the TSCD was designed so multiple disciplines, including psychologists and linguists, could work together in investigating different cultures. With this in mind, Mead was especially adamant that this book not just be written for anthropologists. Interestingly, the TSCD was also deeply rooted in developmental psychology. It also outlined pragmatic methodologies of how to conduct group research, and it suggested anthropologists should study film, literature, and popular culture as part of their investigations (Mead et al., 2000). Through her decades of anthropological research, Mead preferred to learn about cultures by traveling to remote places of interest and living amongst the people she was studying through fieldwork.Įdited by Margaret Mead, The Study of Culture at Distance (TSCD) was published in 1953 as a book of anthropological methodologies or - as she referred to it as - a “research manual.” This book represented the birth of a few new trends in anthropology that have continued today.įirstly, the TSCD shifted the focus in anthropology from so-called primitive societies to western societies. Mead commented on a wide range of societal issues in her research, such as women’s rights, race relations, environmental pollution, and world hunger. Mead was a prolific author, and during the 1960s and 1970s, she was a frequent speaker in mass media. This included Mead’s challenging of American views on sex, family structure, and the way in which they raised their children (Mark, 1999). Through her work, Mead challenged western cultural views and was often controversial as an academic. In Samoa, Bali, and New Guinea, Mead studied how people lived - particularly those with little contact with Western civilization. degrees from Columbia in the field of anthropology (Metraux, 1980). She earned her bachelor’s degree at Barnard College of Columbia University and her M.A. Mead was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1901 to a family of educators. Margaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist who spent her life studying people on remote islands in the Pacific.

Why was Margaret Mead a controversial figure?.What did Margaret Mead conclude from her studies?.

Coming of age in samoa book review