MARGARET MEAD

Mead’s remarkable 50 years of work in the field of anthropology are retold in this inspiring biography in the Oxford Portraits in Science series. Readers are transported to Samoa to understand Mead’s fieldwork with Samoan adolescents, entertained with tales about the Manus children in the Admiralty Islands, introduced to the exotic ceremonial life of the Balinese, and returned to the US for Mead’s critical assessments of American life written during WWII. Most importantly, however, Mark leaves readers a reminder of Mead’s conviction that we must not judge so-called “primitive” cultures against our own, but as separate cultures worthy of understanding and respect. This study of Margaret Mead’s life is critical to current social dialogue on how to promote tolerance and eliminate stereotypes between the races and sexes; perhaps Mark’s work, already a great introduction to Mead’s own writings, will become required reading for America’s youth. (photos, chronology, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 11-16)