University of Virginia Library

MEAD, Margaret (1901-1978):

highly influential American ANTHROPOLOGIST. Her first study was made in Samoa, in 1925-1926 where she investigated the then fashionable topic of adolescence and extolled the virtues of pre-marital sex. In recent years the validity of her early work has been severely challenged by Derik Frieman in his book Margaret Mead and Samoa (1983). Among her many books are Coming of Age in Samoa (1928) and Blackberry Winter (1972).