Margaret Mead

Meet Margaret Mead
Meet Margaret Mead

Margaret Mead
I have chosen to write about Margaret Mead because she was highly influential in anthropology and contributed greatly by studying the multitude of ways children are raised and this enhanced my understanding of cultural differences. She put emphasis on the dynamic relationship between individual and culture pattern. Her theories took into account the processes of human development and in doing so attempted to explain what made cultures distinctive but coherent entities. She was also a female pioneer in the male dominated field of anthropology.
Margaret Mead was born on December 16, 1901, in Philadelphia, P.A. Margaret and her parents were from the Midwest, and because of their professions, the family moved quite a bit living in places such as Hampton, New Jersey; New York City, and in Philadelphia. Because she moved so much as a child, Margaret had been subjected to many different styles of living, and therefore had a growing desire to learn more about different lifestyles and cultures.
Mead was born to very highly educated parents for their time. Ever since she was a young girl, Margaret had a desire to gain an education and to choose an occupation that would help her make her mark in society. First, Margaret attended DePauw University in Indiana for one year, then she studied at Barnard College in New York. Later she received her Ph. D. degree from Columbia University.
Margaret once stated that she set out to understand people and to use what knowledge that she gained to help other people. Margaret's purpose in life was one that was very unselfish because more than anything she wanted to help others. She was a woman that dreamed of becoming someone important and making a difference in her world.
Margaret was involved in different types of field work. In 1925, she began her first field work project, in the Samoan Islands, which she is best known for. She wanted to know whether adolescence was a...