Eventually, Mead was able to improve her knowledge and duties as an anthropologist and later, Mead’s work was able to demonstrate a significant contribution to the field of visual anthropology. Considering this, Mead made us of image producing technologies in her works (Ruby 2000, 176). Mead mentions that these technologies not only makes it easier to produce reliable data, but they are also considered as a more reliable source for developing one’s cultural relativism (Ruby 2000, 176). Thus, as an anthropologist, the use of image producing technologies also plays a vital role in collaborative research by focusing on the audience, the visual itself, and the way the image is viewed through one’s cultural lenses. Mead’s research incorporates a
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Mead’s work not only played a significant role in the lives of scholars, but other anthropologists were also inspired by her theory and methodology of work. According to Molloy, “Mead’s work is a sustained commentary on the self and its relation to the larger society. It is one of the arguments of this study that the self as represented is not just any individual, but is in some sense both an American self and the self of America” (Molloy 2008, 1). Therefore, Mead’s works were not only reflective, but they were also reflexive. Mead’s research methodology was based on experimental psychology and participant observation, where she lived with people, observed their lives, and conducted direct interviews by asking questions that were relevant to her getting know her subjects. In addition, Mead “broadened the base of information on which social anthropology now rests, enriching it with insights borrowed from such previously excluded disciplines as psychology and economics” (Mead 2003, …show more content…
Indeed, Mead was a people’s person and upon arriving at Tau “the local children immediately gathered on the porch to peek through the screen, [and…] other Samoans, curious about her, came to visit” (Mark 1999, 31). Mead’s research consisted of “an intensive study of 50 girls between the ages of 10 and 20. Her youth and small size–she was 5 feet, 2 inches and weighed 98 pounds–allowed her to fit in easily with the adolescent girls she had come to study” (Mark 1999, 32). Considering this, Mead’s task “was to obtain, under [Franz Boas] direction, an answer to ‘the problem of which phenomena of adolescence are culturally and which physiologically determined.’ In 1928, in Coming of Age in Samoa, after a woefully inadequate period of fieldwork, Mead concluded, unreservedly, that the phenomena of adolescence are due not to physiology, but to ‘the social environment’” (Freeman 2000, 101). Mead’s book Coming of Age in Samoa was of significance in the field of anthropology because it helped her to gain “a national reputation as an expert on ‘primitive cultures’” (Newman 1996, 233). As a result, I chose this book as one of my sources in order to develop my knowledge on Margaret Mead’s background as an anthropologist. Coming of Age in Samoa was Mead’s first book and research. She started this research at 24 years old with the help of Franz Boas, her
Mead’s work not only played a significant role in the lives of scholars, but other anthropologists were also inspired by her theory and methodology of work. According to Molloy, “Mead’s work is a sustained commentary on the self and its relation to the larger society. It is one of the arguments of this study that the self as represented is not just any individual, but is in some sense both an American self and the self of America” (Molloy 2008, 1). Therefore, Mead’s works were not only reflective, but they were also reflexive. Mead’s research methodology was based on experimental psychology and participant observation, where she lived with people, observed their lives, and conducted direct interviews by asking questions that were relevant to her getting know her subjects. In addition, Mead “broadened the base of information on which social anthropology now rests, enriching it with insights borrowed from such previously excluded disciplines as psychology and economics” (Mead 2003, …show more content…
Indeed, Mead was a people’s person and upon arriving at Tau “the local children immediately gathered on the porch to peek through the screen, [and…] other Samoans, curious about her, came to visit” (Mark 1999, 31). Mead’s research consisted of “an intensive study of 50 girls between the ages of 10 and 20. Her youth and small size–she was 5 feet, 2 inches and weighed 98 pounds–allowed her to fit in easily with the adolescent girls she had come to study” (Mark 1999, 32). Considering this, Mead’s task “was to obtain, under [Franz Boas] direction, an answer to ‘the problem of which phenomena of adolescence are culturally and which physiologically determined.’ In 1928, in Coming of Age in Samoa, after a woefully inadequate period of fieldwork, Mead concluded, unreservedly, that the phenomena of adolescence are due not to physiology, but to ‘the social environment’” (Freeman 2000, 101). Mead’s book Coming of Age in Samoa was of significance in the field of anthropology because it helped her to gain “a national reputation as an expert on ‘primitive cultures’” (Newman 1996, 233). As a result, I chose this book as one of my sources in order to develop my knowledge on Margaret Mead’s background as an anthropologist. Coming of Age in Samoa was Mead’s first book and research. She started this research at 24 years old with the help of Franz Boas, her