Coming of Age in Samoa
Coming of Age in Somoa
Margaret Mead 's "Coming of Age in Samoa", which was actually her doctoral dissertation, was compiled in a period of six months starting in 1925.
Through it, people were given a look at a society not affected by the problems of 20th century industrial America. She illustrated a picture of a society where love was available for the asking and crime was dealt with by exchanging a few mats. This book helps one to realize the large role played by social environment. One of Mead 's biggest challenges was probably the fact that her fieldwork was done entirely in the Samoan language. In Samoa, few, if any natives spoke English.
To get information, Mead spent her time talking to approximately 25 Samoan women. However, she spent much of her focus on two young Samoan women, Fa 'apua 'a
Fa 'amu and Fofoa. It is said that one Samoan woman 's life is very much like the next. At the time of her visit to Samoa, Mead, a graduate student was only 23 years old. She was barely older than the girls she interviewed and lovingly called her "merry companions". The vision received while reading "Coming of Age in Samoa" is that it is a place of nearly stress free living. The children pass through adolescence without the many pressures put upon teenagers in an industrial America: ...adolescence represented no period of crisis or stress,but was instead an orderly developing of a set of slowly maturing interests and activities (95).
According to Mead, families are large, taboos and restrictions are few, and disagreements are settled by the giving of mats. The stresses encountered by American teenagers are unknown to their Samoan counterparts. Mead refers to premarital sex as the "pastime par excellence" for Samoan youth. She writes that Samoa is a virtual paradise of free love, as the young people from 14 years of age until they are married have nothing on their minds except sex. Of Samoan girls Mead says:
She thrusts virtuosity away from her as she
Margaret Mead 's "Coming of Age in Samoa", which was actually her doctoral dissertation, was compiled in a period of six months starting in 1925.
Through it, people were given a look at a society not affected by the problems of 20th century industrial America. She illustrated a picture of a society where love was available for the asking and crime was dealt with by exchanging a few mats. This book helps one to realize the large role played by social environment. One of Mead 's biggest challenges was probably the fact that her fieldwork was done entirely in the Samoan language. In Samoa, few, if any natives spoke English.
To get information, Mead spent her time talking to approximately 25 Samoan women. However, she spent much of her focus on two young Samoan women, Fa 'apua 'a
Fa 'amu and Fofoa. It is said that one Samoan woman 's life is very much like the next. At the time of her visit to Samoa, Mead, a graduate student was only 23 years old. She was barely older than the girls she interviewed and lovingly called her "merry companions". The vision received while reading "Coming of Age in Samoa" is that it is a place of nearly stress free living. The children pass through adolescence without the many pressures put upon teenagers in an industrial America: ...adolescence represented no period of crisis or stress,but was instead an orderly developing of a set of slowly maturing interests and activities (95).
According to Mead, families are large, taboos and restrictions are few, and disagreements are settled by the giving of mats. The stresses encountered by American teenagers are unknown to their Samoan counterparts. Mead refers to premarital sex as the "pastime par excellence" for Samoan youth. She writes that Samoa is a virtual paradise of free love, as the young people from 14 years of age until they are married have nothing on their minds except sex. Of Samoan girls Mead says:
She thrusts virtuosity away from her as she