"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world."--Margaret Mead
This quotation--found on posters and bumper stickers, and adopted as the motto for hundreds of organizations worldwide--speaks to the global influence and legacy of the American anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901-78). In this insightful and revealing book, Nancy Lutkehaus explains how and why Mead became the best-known anthropologist and female public intellectual in twentieth-century America.
Using photographs, films, television appearances, and materials from newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals, Lutkehaus explores the ways in which Mead became an American cultural heroine. Identifying four key images associated with her--the New Woman, the Anthropologist/Adventurer, the Scientist, and the Public Intellectual--Lutkehaus examines the various meanings that different segments of American society assigned to Mead throughout her lengthy career as a public figure. The author shows that Mead came to represent a new set of values and ideas--about women, non-Western peoples, culture, and America's role in the twentieth century--that have significantly transformed society and become generally accepted today. Lutkehaus also considers why there has been no other anthropologist since Mead to become as famous.
Margaret Mead is an engaging look at how one woman's life and accomplishments resonated with the issues that shaped American society and changed her into a celebrity and cultural icon.
Nancy C. Lutkehaus is professor of anthropology at the University of Southern California and a fellow at the Getty Research Institute. She is the author of Zaria's Fire: Engendered Moments in Manam Ethnography. While a student, she worked for several years as an assistant to Margaret Mead at the American Museum of Natural History, and, like Mead, she has done ethnographic research in Papua New Guinea.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations ix Preface xi
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction: Mead as American Icon 1
Chapter 1. Mead as Modern Woman 25
Chapter 2. Images of the Mature Mead 58
Chapter 3. Mead as Anthropologist: "Sex in the South Seas" 83
Chapter 4. Mead as Anthropologist: "To Study Cannibals" 113
Chapter 5. Mead as Anthropologist: "To Find Out How Girls Learn to Be Girls" 133
Chapter 6. Mead and the Image of the Anthropologist 151
Chapter 7. Mead as Scientist 165
Chapter 8. Mead as Public Intellectual and Celebrity 205
Chapter 9. The Posthumous Mead, or Mead, the Public Anthropologist 238
Abbreviations of Archival Sources 265
Notes 267
Bibliography 331
Index 361
What People are Saying About This
Marcus
This is an absorbing, expertly researched, and much-needed treatment of Margaret Mead. It is the definitive book about Mead's fame and her complicities in creating it. — George E. Marcus, University of California, Irvine
From the Publisher
"This is an absorbing, expertly researched, and much-needed treatment of Margaret Mead. It is the definitive book about Mead's fame and her complicities in creating it."—George E. Marcus, University of California, Irvine"Engaging and illuminating, this book shows how Margaret Mead deftly worked with different media forms, and how her celebrity evolved with transformations in popular media. Margaret Mead renders the anthropologist's life with new meaning and insight, and helps us to understand why Mead emerged as a cultural figure and icon."—Faye Ginsburg, New York University
Faye Ginsburg
Engaging and illuminating, this book shows how Margaret Mead deftly worked with different media forms, and how her celebrity evolved with transformations in popular media. Margaret Mead renders the anthropologist's life with new meaning and insight, and helps us to understand why Mead emerged as a cultural figure and icon. — Faye Ginsburg, New York University
