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Mead, Margaret (1901-1978)

From The Hutchinson Dictionary of Scientific Biography
Place : United States of America Subject : biography, anthropology US anthropologist who established the practice of fieldwork in anthropology and - with her account of adolescence in Samoa - popularized the idea within her own country that there are alternatives to the American way of life. She was also one of the first anthropologists to study childrearing. The accuracy of her early observations was later called into question. She used the media to air her views on civil liberties, ecology, feminism, child psychology, education and social issues, and became one of the best known media personalities of her generation. Mead was born in Philadelphia, the eldest of five children. Her father was a professor of finance and her mother a teacher and sociologist who was also a suffragist. Mead had a happy childhood and was mostly educated at home by her grandmother who was also a teacher. In the 1920s she studied anthropology under German-born US anthropologist Franz Boas (1858-1942) at…
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Margaret Meade
The American anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901–1978) developed the field of culture and personality research and was a dominant influence in introducing the concept of culture into education, medicine, and public policy. Margaret Mead was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on December 16, 1901. …
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Full text Article Mead, Margaret

From The Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Women's Biography
American anthropologist. Born in Philadelphia, the eldest of five children, she spent a happy childhood. Her father was a professor of finance; her mother, a teacher and sociologist, was a feminist and suffragist. Margaret was chiefly educated at home by her grandmother, also a qualified teacher. …
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Full text Article Mead, Margaret

From The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology
An American cultural anthropologist whose early field work was on child-rearing in the Pacific, she made a major contribution to the NATURE/NURTURE DEBATE and the study of CULTURE and SOCIALIZATION . While not denying the importance of biology and the natural environment, Mead demonstrated the…
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Full text Article Mead, Margaret (1901-1978)

From Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology
A student of Franz Boas (1858-1942) and protégée of Ruth Benedict (1887-1948), Mead was an anthropologist of unrivaled international celebrity during her long and multifaceted career. She opposed cultures to races (see race and ethnicity ) and pointed to the diversity of practices of enculturation…
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Full text Article Mead, Margaret

From The Great American History Fact-Finder
Anthropologist. Known for her pioneering studies on culture and human behavior, Mead spent many years living among the island tribes of the South Pacific. She observed the development of social behavior, particularly among children, and contrasted values between cultures. She examined the importance…
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Full text Article Mead, Margaret

From Philip's Encyclopedia
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Full text Article Mead, Margaret (1901–1978)

From Culture Wars in America: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices
Perhaps the twentieth century's most famous social anthropologist, Margaret Mead stirred controversy with pioneering work that contrasted human social relations in traditional and Western societies, as exemplified in her initial book, Coming of Age in Samoa (1928), and later summary works, Sex and…
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Full text Article Mead, Margaret (1901–1978)

From The Oxford Encyclopedia of the History of American Science, Medicine, and Technology
anthropologist and social reformer Margaret Mead was born in Philadelphia to Emily Fogg, a sociologist, feminist, and suffragist, and Edward Sherwood Mead, professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania. She graduated from Barnard College with a bachelor's degree in 1923 and in 1929…
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Full text Article Mead, Margaret (1901-1978)

From The Hutchinson Dictionary of Scientific Biography
Place : United States of America Subject : biography, anthropology US anthropologist who established the practice of fieldwork in anthropology and - with her account of adolescence in Samoa - popularized the idea within her own country that there are alternatives to the American way of life. She was…
| 801 words
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Full text Article Mead, Margaret (1901–1978)

From The International Encyclopedia of Human Sexuality
anthropology gender identity and role sexuality in non‐Western cultures the Pacific Margaret Mead was the United States’ best‐known anthropologist of the twentieth century and a pioneering scholar on the subjects of sex and gender. Mead's major contributions to the study of sex and gender are…
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