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Home , Coming of Age in Samoa, Derek Freeman

MEAD-FREEMAN CONTROVERSY

[oEFlteN, H. "Mathematical ." In Models of Elementary Structures. Leiden: Leiden Biennial Reoiexu of Anthropology, 1969, editedby University, 1949. Press, Wnrl, A. "On the Algebraic Study of Certain Tlpes J. Siegel. Stanford, Calif,: Stanford University 1970. of Laws (Murngin System)." Appendix Claude )RIoN, P., and G. De Meun. "La question Murngin, to The Elementary Structures of by un artefact de la litt6rature anthropologique." L6vi-Strauss, translated byJames Harle Bell et al. L'Homme 20 (1980): 39-70. Boston: Beacon Press, 1969. In Hand- Ay, PAUL, ed. Explorations in Mathematical Anthro- WHtrn, D. "Mathematical Anthropology." by palagy. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1971. book af Social and Cultural Anthrapology, edited Rand McNaIly,7973. ,EHMAN, F., and K. Wrrz. "Prolegemena to a Formal J. Honigmann. Chicago: Theory of Kinship." ln Genealogical Mathematics, Wutrt, H. An Anatamlt of Kinship: Mathematical te d Ro I e s. Englewood edited by Paul Ballonoff. Paris: Mouton, 1,974- M o de ts for S truc tures of Cumula N Prentice-Hall, 19 63. ,or,'i-Stn tuss, Creuon. S tructural Anthropo logy, !958, Cliffs, J.: WHtre, Lpslrn A. "Sociology, Physics, and Math- translated by Claire Jacobson and G. G. Schoepf. White: Ethnological Essays, New York Basic Books, 1963 -1'976. ematics." ln Leslie A. B. Dillingham and R. Carneiro. . The Elernentary Structures of Kinship' 1'949, reprint edited by University of New Mexico, 1987. translated byJames Harle Beil et al. Boston: Beacon Albuquerque: Press, 1969. ,w,P. Foundations of Kinship Matheznaticl Nanking: Academia Sinica, 1986. MEAD-FREEMAN ,ucICH, P. Genealogical Symmetry: Rational Founda' CONTROVERSY tians of Australian Kinship. Armidale, Austraiia: n 1928 's Cotning ofAge in Light Stone, 1987. I Ib...-. a best-seller and, ultimately, one of 4trcHeLL, J., .d. Numerical Techniques in 's enduring ciassics. In her book, Mead Anthropology. Philadelphia: Institute for the Study contrasted Samoan with U.S. adolescence of Human Issues, 1980. and found that Samoan adolescence was not neces- rla.npr-, StecrRIED F. The Theorl af Sacial Structure. sarily a time of "storm and stress" as it was in the London: Cohen & West, 1955. United States. She argued that because adolescence )Etncn, CHARLES SANDERS. "The Essence of Math- varied cross-culturally, biologywas not destiny. Mead ematics." In The World ofMathematics, reprint edited also found that Samoan sexual conduct was permis- by James Roy Newman. New York: Simon & sive compared to American sexual conduct at that Schuster, 1956. time. lnao, D. "Kinship Algebra: A Mathematical Study of Kinship Structure." In Genealogical Mathemat- In the following decades, Mead went on to a long lrs, edited by Paul Ballonoff. Paris: Mouton, L974. and distinguished careerl by the 1970s she was con- 'An Algebraic Account of the American sidered America's first woman of science. Meadt work ." Current Anthropology 25 on Samoa was widely accepted by the public, but after (1e8a): 417-449. her death was subjected to . "The Utility of Mathematical Constructs an extensive critical review by , an in Building Archaeological Theory." In M at b ema t i c s emeritus professor at Australian National University and Information Science in Archaeology: A Flexible with considerable {ield experience inWestern Samoa. Frameuork, edited by A. Voorrips. Bonn: Flolos, The Mead-Freeman controversy began early in 1983, t990. when the Nertt York Times ran a major article sum- Rpeo, D., and C. BruRpNs. "KAES: An Expert marizing Freeman's new book, Margaret Mead and System for the Algebraic Analysis of Kinship Ter- Samaa; The Making and Unmaking of anAnthropologi- minologies." Journal af Quantitatiae Anthropology cat Myth. The title conveyed Freeman's thinking. 2 (7990): 353-393. Mead's Samoa was a m1th, and her book was a de- RtNrREw, C., and K. Coorn, eds. Transformations: ceptively bad piece of research authored by a young Mathematical Approaches ta Cultural Change. New anthropologistwho did a minimum of reai fieldwork, York Academic Press' 1979' had little understanding of Samoan , and who TloN Srn Fer, F. E. Representing Kinship: Simple naively believed Samoan lies about their private lives.

757 MEAD - FREEMAN CONTBOVEBSY on Samoan adolescence' like her had little conflict; Mead's findings For Mead, Samoan adolescence of the 1920s' fieldwork, need to be viewed in light was riddled with conflict and aggres- for Freeman, it century the UnitedState^s was rape was almost In the early twentieth sion. Although Mead stated that found sexually restrictive ' When Mead found Samoa to have one of stiil a nonexistent, Fr."-u'l Samoan adolescent,girls she Far from being that almost half the the highest rates of rape in the world' and an.even studied had heterosexual experience' Freeman argued that were o..rnirrirr., had homosexual experielce' sh1 to a greater higher percentage 1o puritanical, probably carrying virginity soctety iho"gl-tt that Samoa was a permissive known to anthropology'An do,rbt i"tr"-" than any culture States at that time' Al- most tnflu- .o-pur"d ,il ft ,n. United uproar ensued as a great 's engaglng adolescent Samoans were privately question' though ential work was called into a restrictive public ir-r ,"l"tal activity, there was also and sometimes In the normal course of academic controversy' moraliry that condemned this behavior have been duly contribution lies in his Freeman's claims, like Mead's, would ,"rr"."ly p.rnlshed it' Freeman's their strengths' morality and the reviewed and evaluated in terms of d.r..iptlrl of this restrictive public Mead's pro- resulted from the shame weaknesses, and limitations, but given clandestine nature ofsex that quickly became a sexuai activiry including fessional stature' the controversy ur-ra a"r-rg., associated with Virtu- thus less permls- public spectacle. Media coverage intensified' ,up.. Sutoun public morality was and news magazine but sexual utty major U'S' newsPaper ,i r" thur-, M"ud uckrtowiedged' Private "rr.ry toured Freeman argues' reiort.d on the controversy' Freeman himself behavior was less restrictive than and other talk the country, appearing on Donahue con- In comparative perspective, Samoan sexual pro.lui-"d thut he had "staggered the shows. H" extreme as portrayed by either Mead fraud no less signifi- duct was not as I and exposed a establishment" the world's many ' Sa- earlier in the or Freeman. Among cant than the notorious Piltdown hoax Mead was neither as sexually permissive as These escalating claims further moa t*.r-rti"th century' as Freeman thought believed it to be nor as restrictive the controversy' People felt compelled personalized Samoa fails somewhere in the middle could not respond (she it to be. Rather' to tuk sides. Mead herself sexually permis- on a continuum between the most years earlier), but American anthro- had died several the most sexually restrictive.cultures' that Freemaris critique was sive and pologists generally thought carry v1rg1n1ry t0 Freeman's statement that Samoans exaggerated and misguided' culture is not sup- a greater extreme than any other book and the Since the publication of Freeman's ported by cross-cultural studies' an enormous amount ensuing publiciry there has been neglected biol- Freeman's contention that Mead the controversy' more of material published on Perhaps is misleading' Mead of an- ogy while emphasizing culture uny otht' controversy in the history than on as a universal biologicai process' engage both anthro- ,ri.*"d adolescence thropology' and it continues to easier she found the transition to adulthood The controversy is complex' Because pologistJand the pubiic' reasoned that bi- some cultures than others' Mead of factual' theoretical' historical' in i.t,roiui.g a number this variation' a line of has ology alone could not explain and even personal issues'Thus' there .orr-rpururiu., is one of the bases of modern anthro- there is no final urgil"rl, that been no resolution to Jate' Although biology po-logy. Freemans proposal that culture and the following generalizations seem reason- consensus' irlr.#, is one that Mead herself embraced' able. that Mead and Freeman de- in the1920s' Today' the Samoa Mead's work in Samoawas pioneering no longer scribe, composed mostly of rural villages' has shown, based on his research in but as Freeman changed a gtea;t deal slnce ts open to Su-o"n lives have 1940s and thereaftet, Coming of Age "rirtr. the fieldwork in the 1920s and since WorldWar errors of fact and interpretation Mead's criticism. There are began his fieldwork in seen II, uborl, the time Freeman overstatements in the book that can be as well as Almost one-half of all Samoans no longer the past' Mead's later the isiands. more clearly today than in than 40 percent live in the islands' By the 1990s more fieldwork in other areas of the Paci{ic demonstrates of Western Samoans had permanently migrated learned much from her research in Samoa' that she and more than 60 percent of American of many innovative works overseas' Co,**g ofAgrwas the first So much has Samoans had also left the islands' tfrut.Jni.ib"rrted to her stature as an anthropologist'

758 MEDICALANTHBeleles{

has created a ethnologists, and linguists controversy 1s more biologists, that the Mead-Freeman any single changed field that is autonomous from about Samoa today' -subdiscipline'and uboui th" past than ;;;.;* potential for integration ofphvsical ;; inter- controversy has The field is also highlv summary, the Mead-Freeman ;i;;;i In ""ilropologv' to sociology' eco- h"u' but few new ethnographic disciplinary, linking anthropology nursing' r.;.;;;;J;;.h insights' It is as well as to medicine' iontributions and no new theoretical ;;;i*, u,ti g.og'upt'ty, itself contains er- and other health protesslons' no* .t.u, that Freeman's critique public health, and overstate*"": Tl:t; anthropology has rors of interpretation ^:1: Since the mid-1960s' medical will not requrre a cnolce ecology future of the controversy three major orientations' Medical Freeman's' rather' it will a"tJp.d units benveen Mead's view or u' biological as well as cultural and O"p"i",ior" of the strengths' weaknesses' "**, ecological.systems' inuotu. r..og,lition una ri.tii., interactions among limitationsofbotharguments.Thecontroversywill evolution' Ethnomedical analysis ethnog- health, and human quite apart from Samoan and the cog- continue because, fo..rr., on cultural systems of healing al theory', it anthro- raphy and anthropolo gic "ti: of illness' Applied medical famous:::t^1.":: an- ;"t;;"r^-.ters of one of tht world's most policy ,frt J.pu,.,iorl deals with intervention' prevention'and O"t.r, forces and thropologists. issues and analyzes the socioeconomic influence access to care' In P,tul SHnNntnN ;;;";;;tT"tentials that is most closely allied this triad, an- In the formative years' some Univer- with ethnomedicine' Samaan Chief Honolulu: field as C,trxrNs, Fx. My ,ir.p.f"gi,ts favored identifying the siry of Hawaii Press, 1962' l",trio-"it.ine," while others preferred "anthropol- Reader: pre- C,croN, HrRAxt . The Samoa term "medical anthropology" ""Cu- Press of *f .f f-t""f,ft."The Lanham, Md': University represent a diversifred trrru. vailed, however, coming to 1990' America, range of orientations' Storru and Stress: An COIC, 1o*r, E. Adolescent Controoersy' Evaiuatian of the Mead-Freeman NJ': Lawrence Erlbaum Associates' HISTORY Hillsdale, Anderson Foster and Barbara Gallatin 1992. George M. of medical anthropoi- "Evidence and Science in Ethno- the development Ernlssn, MELvllu. [;;;i-,;".. of early Freeman-Mead Con- distinct sources: the interest graphy: Reflections on the oev to four s7 (1"985): in human evolution and ;;;;.;ry." rii';.-i;,i"f'r'*t"' interest in primitive medi- 906-910. il;;;,';,'og'nit'it the culture "Margaret Mread. and of p'ythiutrit phenomena in --i*ou,forur*, RtcH.tnn' 1988' .J" ,r*ai", in Fiction'" n'"tJ u'-tth'opological work Coming of Age in Fact and "t-toot' Rivers (1924)' 90 (1988): 656-663' ""J'o.rr"*tityhtulth' William H' R' American Anthrapotagist t","i"*"""t non- Samoa: -,The the first ethnologist of Denm. Margaret Mead antl , ot uri.iur-r, is considered FPsElrnN, theoretical work by of an Anthrolotogical Myt:- practices' Eariy , Making and Unmaking #;";;;ical Acker- Pres" 1 9 8 3' (1932) and Erwin H' i.ttiitJ*., HJ'*'d University porr.r, tr. Clements in Samoa' New (tsoz,'s+q also attempted to svstematize lrm, Mnlnc'cnnr.""rr., Coming of Age ;;;; beliefs and practices' Paralleling York Morrow, 1928' medical ;;*il applications of anthro- theory develoPment were early Since the principles to health problems' O.f"tb"f health. care pro- ig+0", u,-t,hropoiogi't' have heiped in health be- ICALANTHROPOLOGY .rr-rd.,'tut'Jtrr1ttt'ul differences iid"r, volume study of human in Benjamin D' Paul's edited edical anthropology is the h;l;rr, u, shown ano Case Studies-of Public and disease, health care systems' Hrottn,' Culture ond Co*munity: ,health the first draws upon tne Programs ifSSS)' one of loral adaptation.The discipiine Reactions to Health and compare texts' frelds of anthropology to anilyze medical anthroPologY of ethnic and of ,.gionul popt'iutio'"t' and first to identifr hcrkh William CaudiII (1953) was the and contemporary' Polgar enclaves, both prehistoric by review articles by Steven human the freld, followed )ration among paleopathologists'