Uncovering Margaret Mead

FAIN: TR-285411-22

Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Inc. (New York, NY 10017-5621)
Chip Colwell (Project Director: August 2021 to present)

Production of ten podcast episodes on Margaret Mead’s contributions to the public understanding of anthropology.

The Wenner-Gren Foundation requests an NEH production grant over 15 months in support of the podcast project, "Uncovering Margaret Mead." The podcast will tell the story of the famed anthropologist Margaret Mead’s epic life and controversial research as a means to inspire reflection on three key humanities themes: nature versus nurture, human sexuality, and whether the cultural worlds of others can ever truly be known. A focused marketing campaign and dynamic companion website will foster public engagement, while a new university curriculum will bring these conversations to classrooms across the United States. Over the course of one season, our team will produce 10 thoughtful, balanced, and analytical episodes through SAPIENS (sapiens.org), the award-winning and free digital magazine that provides a platform for anthropologists to communicate their research to a broad general audience.

Associated Products

The Problems With Coming of Age (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: The Problems With Coming of Age
Director: Ari Daniel
Producer: Jocelyn Gonzales
Producer: Rithu Jagannath
Producer: Ashraya Gupta
Producer: Chip Colwell
Producer: Sia Figiel
Producer: Tanya Volentras
Producer: Esteban Gómez
Abstract: This special SAPIENS podcast season, co-hosted by Doris Tulifau and Kate Ellis, tells the story of famed anthropologist Margaret Mead’s epic life and controversial research in American Samoa to explore key quandaries about the human experience: sex and adolescence, nature versus nurture, and the question of whether it’s ever possible to fully understand cultures different from your own. In addition, we hear from Samoans themselves about their views on Mead’s legacy and their lives today. In 1928, when she was just 27 years old, Mead published Coming of Age in Samoa: A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilization, which investigated the sexual lives of young women on the Pacific Islands. The book was an instant bestseller, challenging people in the U.S. to rethink much of what they had assumed to be true about sex, human biology, and growing up. Mead became one of the most influential anthropologists in history and one of TIME magazine’s most powerful 25 women of the 20th century. She received a U.S. presidential medal of freedom, and a U.S. postal stamp was made with her picture on it. But what if Mead’s findings about Samoans were wrong? Five years after Mead’s death, anthropologist Derek Freeman rebutted the central claims Mead made in her career-launching work, sparking a media sensation and challenging the field of anthropology. The controversy that followed sparked questions about the science of intercultural understanding and why Samoans weren’t empowered to speak for themselves.
Date: 10/10/23
Primary URL: https://www.sapiens.org/podcast-season/season-6/
Primary URL Description: Podcast landing page
Access Model: Open access
Format: Radio
Format: Digital File
Format: Web

Special Course: The Problems With Coming of Age (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: Special Course: The Problems With Coming of Age
Author: Freedom Learning
Abstract: In this course, students will be introduced to early twentieth-century anthropology, focusing on Margaret Mead as a historical figure, her work in American Samoa, and her impact on the discipline of anthropology. Students will discover the history and relevance of Margaret Mead’s research in American Samoa, and why, a century later, the controversies and legacies around it, sparked by her fierce critic Derek Freeman, are still so relevant today. Students will explore the overall idea of whether Mead was right about Samoans as a lens through which to explore the key themes of the nature vs. nurture debate, human sexuality, and knowledge production. Identifying the ways that Derek Freeman challenged Mead’s groundbreaking anthropological claims, students will explore how neither Mead nor Freeman was entirely correct. This class aims to grapple with the legacy of this controversy and the realization that the sciences and humanities need to include reflexive methods and Indigenous perspectives to see the world in more complex ways.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://www.sapiens.org/teaching/
Primary URL Description: Teaching Units landing page
Audience: Undergraduate

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