Adolescencia y cultura en Samoa

Margaret Mead, an American anthropologist, was for most of her life the most illustrious curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. She was famed not only as an anthropologist but also as a public figure, a popularizer of the social sciences, and an analyst of American society. While at Columbia University, she was a student of Franz Boas, whose teaching assistant, Ruth Benedict, became one of Mead's closest colleagues and friends; after Benedict's death, Mead became her first biographer and the custodian of her field notes and papers. Mead's early research in Samoa led to her best selling book, "Coming of Age in Samoa" (1928); it also led, after her death, to a well-publicized attack on her work by the Australian anthropologist Derek Freeman. Her importance was not damaged by his book; in fact, there is probably a greater awareness today of the important role that she played in twentieth-century intellectual history as an advocate of tolerance, education, civil liberties, world peace, and the worldwide ecumenical movement within Christianity. She was an active and devout Episcopalian throughout her life. On January 6, 1979, she was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. Margaret Mead (Filadelfia, 1901- Nueva York, 1978), una de las más grandes figuras de la antropología cultural de nuestro tiempo, desarrolló una extensa labor de campo, especialmente en Oceanía, y fue profesora de Etnología en la Universidad de Columbia. Siguiendo el ejemplo de su instructora Ruth Benedict, centró sus estudios en problemas de crianza infantil, personalidad y cultura. Mead fue profesora de varias instituciones, y destaca especialmente su carrera en el American Museum of Natural History, en Nueva York. Fue objeto de múltiples honores y homenajes, siendo presidenta de honor de varias asociaciones e instituciones, entre las que destacan the American Anthropological Association y the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Murió en 1978, dejando un voluminoso legado de libros, escritos y trabajos.