Margaret Mead and Derek Freeman controversy

MARGRET MEAD AND DEREK FREEMAN CONTROVERSY
Name
Institution Affiliation
Course
Date of Submission
Margret Mead and Derek Freeman Controversy
Dr Margaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist born Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on December 16, 1901 her father was a university professor of finance and economics. Her mother on the other hand was a sociologist. It was Margret grandmother, Emily Fogg Mead who taught her to watch the behavior of the younger children to figure out the reasons behind their actions (Orans, 1996, p.65). This first experience bore the interest of Mead in anthropology. She developed the culture and personality research and had a considerable persuasion in the introduction of culture into education, public policy and medicine. She was eloquent and frequently featured speaker in the media during the 1960s and 1970s (Levy, 1994, p.32). Mead went to Samoa on a mission to study the behavior of the Samoan people. She recorded her findings on her famous book, Coming of Age in Samoa in 1928 which was harshly contested by Derek Freeman (Orans, 1996, p.69). She wrote other books like Growing Up in New Guinea, New Lives for Old. Mead has been an epitome of anthropology in the American people. She stayed a shorter period in Samoa compared to Derek Freeman.
John Derek Freeman was a New Zealand anthropologist who was born in 15 August 1916 and died in 6 July 2001. He was widely known for his criticism on Margaret Mead`s work in the Samoan society. The interest of Freeman in Boasian cultural anthropology started when he was an undergraduate in Wellington (Levy, 1994, p.52). Later on, he lived and worked as a teacher in Samoa giving him a chance to study their way of life. Previously, he had developed an interest in biological and psychological dimensions of anthropology thereby criticizing fellow anthropologists Margaret Mead (Holmes, 1987, p.59). His ideology led him to publish his book Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and Unmaking of an Anthropological Myth (Levy, 1994, p.66). Whereas Mead stayed in Samoa for a short while, Freeman spent many years staying and studying Samoans way of life.
The research of anthropology can be embraced or criticized by fellow scholars. This is seen when; New Zealand born Professor, Derek Freeman challenges the credibility of the findings of American born anthropologist, Dr. Margaret Mead on the people of Samoa (Orans, 1986, p.71). He even went to the extent of calling it a monumental error
To begin with, Freeman examines Mead`s assertion that competition had be wiped out by Samoan culture. He, contrary to Mead`s claims demonstrates the existence of competition in the cultural spheres of the Samoans. Freeman also shows the existence of high incidence of fighting and violence for power between families and villages shattering Mead`s claim on the unaggressive, least contentious and peaceful nature of the Samoans (Freeman, 1983, p.94). He used police records to prove this and concluded that the Samoan assault rates were even higher than the American rates. He goes ahead to demonstrate the brutal personalities of Samoans during war. This was contrary to Mead`s depiction (Freeman, 1983, p.105).
Secondly, contrary to Mead`s claim of superficial religious views and practices among Samoans, Freeman shows that there was the presence of pagans and Christian Samoans (Gullestrup, 2006, p.109). Besides this, he also provides evidence to show that Samoan culture has an alternative to punishment especially in the respect and obedience to authority. The social organization of the Samoans is authoritarian and is based on a system of severe discipline from an early stage of a child (Holmes, 1987, p.83). This shows the false depiction of Mead that there was no punishment among the Samoan.
Thirdly, Mead claims that there existed no childrearing attachment to a person. She based her argument on her hypothesis that there were no feelings learned during childhood and therefore no feelings were to be discovered during adolescence stage (Homes, 1987, p.97). She went ahead to state that Samoans affection ties with their parents were never formed as it is diffused among the outsized group of family. Freeman concludes on the contrary the presence of the prime bond between mother and child in the Samoan society (Levy, 1984, p.70). The mother is also a source of discipline apart from being a source of love. The mother hence evokes mixed feelings to the child and the result is that she was loved and hated at the same time.
Fourthly, Mead`s declaration on the Samoan character was out rightly false according to Freeman (Freeman, 1983, p.113). Mead argued that Samoans had no strong feelings like passion, and that other feelings like sorrow, bereavement, hate, jealousy, revenge and love were short lived. Supporting his arguments on evidence both his own and that of Mead, Freeman conclud...