Coming of Age in Samoa : A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilisation

Rating:
Summary: Jealous, jealous, jealous!
Review: This is a classic example both of an anthropologist attempting to sift through hundreds of cultural indicators, and of her peers becoming incredibly uncomfortable both with her results, her success in the field, and the implications therein.
(Mead had more than thirty interviewees on the subject of sex, and for a more complete understanding of why her detractors say otherwise, see her published series of letters with a respected mentor.)
Was she impeccably unbiased? No. Could she tell a recreational liar from an honest confidante? Yes. In fact, Mead treats all of her research subjects with some skepticism and makes her own attempt to reconcile the extreme traditional prohibitions on extramarital sex, with the fact that it was indeed occurring, and frequently at that.
As was typical of the times, however, she did not appear to see the Samoans in the proper light of a fully developed culture, but rather in the manner of a Tarzan novel.
Is this offensive? Yes. Does it reveal a good deal of insular cultural ignorance? Yes. Does that mean that all parties interested in the history of anthropology, should avoid the book? No.

Rating:
Summary: Mead, though questionably, raises many cultural questions
Review: Though Meads research was questionable in terms of its accuracy, the observations she makes of Samoan and American cultures caused the anthropolgical world of the time to rethink itself and reorganize its ways of doing things. This book will cause one to reflect upon a society's culture much more deeply and look for the things within that culture that make it truly wonderful.