![]() In 1925, at just twenty-four years old, Mead set out to live with women and young girls in Samoa to answer the question of our tumultuous, American “teenage” experience. What really piqued my interest, and gave me the inspiration for this article, was her research focus - the female adolescent experience. ![]() Vivid, and comprehensively written, Mead’s premier work illustrates Samoan life for both anthropologists and the average reader alike, who may have no interest in anthropology at all. ![]() But just as I found myself in an academic rut, we arrived at Margaret Mead, a student of Franz Boas (the so-called father of North American Anthropology) and the author of Coming of Age in Samoa. Why do we need to analyze groups of people like they are specimen in a petri dish? And why must anthropological writing be so esoteric, complex ideas that are not necessarily complex? What I am trying to say is, after a month in my required Anthropology class, I was starting to get a little tired of the readings. ![]() Suffice to say, its history is laden with racism, sexism, and questionable practices that actually teach us what not to do today- yet I am still struggling to wrap my head around the importance of socio-cultural anthropology. ![]()
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