COMING OF AGE IN SAMOA - A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilisation

Sep 1, 2026

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The text presents Margaret Mead’s psychological study of Samoan youth as a lens for understanding how personality forms through culturally structured life. It frames comparative anthropology as a method for reconstructing cultural histories, while arguing that systematic descriptions often omit individual mental attitudes, friendships, conflicts, and personal experiences. The book’s structure moves from daily life and education to age groups, community relations, sex relations, dance, personality and individuality, conflict, and transitions from maturity to old age.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPaper Templates

FormatDOCX

Pages22

Reading Time8 min

AccessFree to download

Foreword by Franz Boas

Preface 1973 Edition

Introduction

A Day in Samoa

The Education of the Samoan Child

The Samoan Household

The Girl and Her Age Group

The Girl in the Community

Formal Sex Relations

The Rôle of the Dance

The Attitude Towards Personality

The Experience and Individuality of the Average Girl

The Girl in Conflict

Maturity and Old Age

Our Educational Problems in the Light of Samoan Contrasts

Education for Choice

Appendix

Notes to Chapters

Methodology of This Study

Samoan Civilisation As It Is To-day

The Mentally Defective and the Mentally Diseased

Materials Upon Which the Analysis Is Based

Glossary of Native Terms Used in the Text

COMING OF AGE IN SAMOA A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilisation MARGARET MEAD Foreword by Franz Boas AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY SPECIAL MEMBERS EDITION Foreword MODERN descriptions of primitive people give us a picture of their culture classified according to the varied aspects of human life. We learn about inventions, household economy, family and political organisation, and religious beliefs and practices. Through a comparative study of these data and through information that tells us of their growth and development, we endeavour to reconstruct, as well as may be, the history of each particular culture. Some anthropologists even hope that the comparative study will reveal some tendencies of development that recur so often that significant generalisations regarding the processes of cultural growth will be discovered. To the lay reader these studies are interesting on account of the strangeness of the scene, the peculiar attitudes characteristic of foreign cultures that set off in strong light our own achievements and behaviour. However, a systematic description of human activities gives us very little insight into the mental attitudes of the individual. His thoughts and actions appear merely as expressions of rigidly defined cultural forms. We learn little about his rational thinking, about his friendships and conflicts with his fellowmen. The personal side of the life of the individual is almost eliminated in the systematic presentation of the cultural life of the people. The picture is standardised, like a collection of laws that tell us how we should behave, and not how we behave; like rules set down defining the style of art, but not the way in which the artist elaborates his ideas of beauty; like a list of inventions, and not the way in which the individual overcomes technical difficulties that present themselves. And yet the way in which the personality reacts to culture is a matter that should concern us deeply and that makes the studies of foreign cultures a fruitful and useful field of research. We are accustomed to consider all those actions that are part and parcel of our own culture, standards which we follow automatically, as common to all mankind. They are deeply ingrained in our behaviour. We are moulded in their Contents FOREWORD BY FRANZ BOAS iii PREFACE 1973 EDITION ix 1. INTRODUCTION 1 2. A DAY IN SAMOA 8 3. THE EDUCATION OF THE SAMOAN CHILD 11 4. THE SAMOAN HOUSEHOLD 22 5. THE GIRL AND HER AGE GROUP 33 6. THE GIRL IN THE COMMUNITY 41 7. FORMAL SEX RELATIONS 48 8. THE RôLE OF THE DANCE 61 9. THE ATTITUDE TOWARDS PERSONALITY 68 10. THE EXPERIENCE AND INDIVIDUALITY OF THE AVERAGE GIRL 73 11. THE GIRL IN CONFLICT 88 12. MATURITY AND OLD AGE 103 13. OUR EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS IN THE LIGHT OF SAMOAN CONTRASTS 108 14. EDUCATION FOR CHOICE 130 APPENDIX I Notes to Chapters 139 II Methodology of This Study 144 III Samoan Civilisation As It Is To-day 148 IV The Mentally Defective and the Mentally Diseased 155 V Materials Upon Which the Analysis Is Based 157 a. Sample Record Sheet b. Table I. Showing Menstrual History, Sex Experience and Residence in Pastor's Household c. Table II. Family Structure, and Analysis of Table d. Intelligence Tests Used e. Check List Used in Investigation of Each Girl's Experience Glossary of Native Terms Used in the Text 169 -v- Acknowledgments I am indebted to the generosity of the Board of Fellowships in the Biological Sciences of the National Research Council whose award of a fellowship made this investigation possible. I have to thank my father for the gift of my travelling expenses to and from the Samoan Islands. To Professor Franz Boas I owe the inspiration and the direction of my problem, the training which prepared me to undertake such an investigation, and the criticism of my results. For a co-operation which greatly facilitated the progress of my work in the Pacific, I am indebted to Dr. Herbert E. Gregory, Director of the B.

FAQs

What topics does the book plan to cover after the introduction?

It outlines sections on daily life, education, household life, the girl’s age group and community role, formal sex relations, dance, personality, individuality, conflict, and life stages from maturity to old age.

Sep 1, 2026

Upload by Levi