Analysis Of Margaret Mead's Coming Of Age In Samoa

At this tense meeting with considerable distrust and suspicion evident in the faces, speeches and body language of the Samoan chiefs, the High Chief expressed considerable skepticism about American plans for the island, such as providing more education in English, teaching the young marketable skills, and developing the country. Being educated at the University of Hawaii, the High Chief would have had very good reason to be suspicious of the intentions of the United States, even when its representatives expressed their goodwill toward the Native peoples and desire to bring 'progress; and 'modernization. He would have learned about the wars against the Native Americans from the 17th to the 19th Centuries, for example, the annexation of Hawaii in 1898, and the Philippines War of 1899-1902, if indeed he had not known all about these before.

Secondly she found that less value is placed on the children showing obedience to an older person, as Raymond Firth found that in the western pacific, doing as they were told by an adult, was regarded as a concession granted by the child, not a right of the adults. Finally she found that children's sexual behaviour was viewed differently, as Bronislaw Malinowski discovered that in the south Pacific, the attitudes of the adults was simply “tolerance and amused interest” toward the children's sexual explorations.

The adolescence stage in one’s life is often portrayed as a time of ‘storm and stress’ (Lipsitz, 1980). However, there are

Discuss the concept of adolescence as a social construct and its validity for different cultures.

Mead’s “theory of self” is based on the perspective that the self emerges from social interactions, such as observing and interacting with others, responding to others' opinions about oneself, and internalizing external opinions and internal feelings about oneself. The social aspect of self is an important distinction. That’s because other sociologists and psychologists of Mead's time felt that the self was based on biological factors and inherited traits. This was the normal and conventional type of mindset from psychologists at the time. According to Mead, the self is not there from birth, but instead it is developed over time from social experiences and activities.

The age of adolescence has become universally known as an awkward period of growth and socialization. The article “Saplings in the Storm,” by Mary Pipher, was published in 1995 and gives an interesting look into some of the issues faced by adolescent girls, but gives little evidence to support her claims or ways in which to encourage the self-confidence in adolescent girls. More recently, there has been further research looking into the reasons as to why girls become more depressed, endure a decrease in self-esteem, and lose their curiosity after puberty.

The movie thirteen touched many important factors of adolescent’s development. Some of the ones I want to concentrate in this paper are: family system, developmental tasks, and peer pressure.

“Moody, Anne. Coming of Age in Mississippi. New York: Dial, 1968. Print.” Anne Moody was a determined, educated, and an inspiring civil rights activist who was born in Gloster, Mississippi. Born on September 15th, 1940-passed away February 5th, 2015 Anne Moody dedicated her life to making the United States a better place for not only African American’s, but pleaded for equality amongst all races as well. Awarded best book of the year in 1969 by the National Library Association, Anne Moody writes her autobiography “Coming of Age in Mississippi” is an effort to inform her readers about her journey throughout life as an adolescent living in the rural grounds of Gloster, Mississippi, to her times of adulthood working as a subsequent civil rights activist in New York. Anne Moody shares with us the chilling details on why she became a civil rights activist and growing up as a colored female during a time of racial segregation, and humiliation; Along with many other personal experiences, such as losing her childhood friend, and living in a one parent home that puts an intense strain amongst her family’s’ poverty.

In Coming of Age in Samoa, by Margaret Mead, she exemplifies and puts emphasis on the idea of socialization through the view of the Samoan girl, and we also see what her sexuality is as she becomes an adult and has to deal with marriage. Before reading the book I never knew that different cultures like the Samoan culture viewed everything in their daily lives different than how we view it in ours. After learning about the Samoan culture in the book, it gave me a new perspective and how to view the world around me because the book discussed key concepts I didn’t expect to be interesting.

Individual accounts of psychology in the readings, despite negligible difference, are evidence that an individual’s behavior or experience can be reflective of a greater societal trend. Karen Armstrong’s work “Homo Religiosus” analyzes the transformation of the religious institution over time and the various practices performed by individuals and groups. Armstrong describes a spiritual Palaeolithic hunter tradition to transition a boy into manhood:

Margaret Mead’s book “Coming of Age in Samoa” is an anthropological study of a “primitive” group of people under completely different cultural conditions than people of western society, namely America. She chose to study a group of adolescents in the South Sea Island of Samoa, a place where one might study a people: “Whose society has never attained the complexity of our own.” Mead attempts to determine whether or not the experience of turbulence and difficulty during the time of puberty and adolescence was universal, based mostly on biological changes, or were those experiences mostly influenced by environment and culture.

Through it, people were given a look at a society not affected by the problems of 20th century industrial America. She illustrated a picture of a society where love was available for the asking and crime was dealt with by exchanging a few mats. This book helps one to realize the large role played by social environment. One of Mead’s biggest challenges was probably the fact that her fieldwork was done entirely in the Samoan language. In Samoa, few, if any natives spoke English.

The island of Samoa, also known as the “Treasured Islands” or the “Independent State of Samoa” is located between the island of Hawaii and New Zealand in the Polynesian area of the South Pacific. Samoan ancestors left their first mark on the island around 3,000 years ago. Researchers and scientists are still finding small traces of old pottery and belongings left behind. Samoans lived in villages, mainly in the coastal regions which included a vast and open area along with several residencies and huts used as meeting areas or cooking rooms. They later on evolved into using stones to

Adolescence is the distinct transitional stage between childhood and adulthood in human development, extending primarily over the teenage years and terminating legally when the age of majority is reached (Rathus, 2014). However in some instances, this biological, cognitive, social and emotional maturity may not be reached until a later stage and may be dictated by gender. Adolescence is characterised by rapidly changing and unpredictable behaviour (Freud, as cited in Rathus 2014), heightened and unstable emotions (Hall, as cited in Rathus 2014), disturbances in identity, the gradual development of one’s moral reasoning (Kohlberg, as cited in Rathus, 2014) and the gradual establishment of one’s independence. Several of these changes may occur at differing phases in adolescent growth. This development is categorized into three separate stages; early adolescence, middle adolescence, and late adolescence. Early Adolescence, commencing from the ages of eleven or twelve until the age of fourteen, comprises of several features such as rapid biological development and maturity, heightened stress levels and limited coping capabilities. On the other hand, middle adolescence, from the approximate age of fourteen to sixteen, involves the gradual cease of biological change, an increase in coping strategies and declined stress levels. Furthermore, late adolescence, commencing from the age of sixteen until the age of eighteen or nineteen, encompasses physical maturity, whereby the

The Kaluli are a small clan of indigenous people who live in the rain forests in the Southern Highlands of the Great Papuan Plateau found in Papua New Guinea. The Kaluli people’s residency includes up to twenty longhouses each with about fifteen families in them, numbering roughly to about sixty to ninety people in each longhouse. The Kaluli culture does not involve any ranked social structure or individuals with hierarchical authority over others, however relies on strong egalitarian and equal values. The purpose of this of this paper is to highlight the Kaluli people’s identity, their unique upbringing and their struggles faced by missionization. This text will first identify how Kaluli children, both male and female are socialized and encultured in different ways through the mother enforcing certain traits, attitudes, behaviors, traditions and work ethics. Secondly this text will consider how missionization, i.e. the communication of other cultures and the indoctrination of Christianity by missionaries has disrupted the Kaluli’s sense of place. It will focus on the introduction of European-based time, the introduction and demise of some types of languages and the ownership of land and identity. Thirdly this paper will discuss how the enculturation of Kaluli children differs from more civilized enculturation of children and possible reasons for this