Samantha Dzirko
Peace Studies - Period 3
October 25, 2007
Margaret Mead was a strong-willed woman who desired to help people from a young age. Born to highly educated parents, Edward Sherwood Mead and Emily Briggs, Margaret was raised in a household of great intellect and in an environment where her activist mother influenced her immensely. From a young age, Mead wanted to help people. This is evident in the fact that she later went on to become an anthropologist, although that was not her original career path. Throughout her career as an anthropologist, Mead had the opportunity to study many different cultures and mastered a total of seven languages. She has written books about her travels in books, such as Coming of Age in Samoa. She also edited or co-authored other books that contain information on her studies. Not only did Margaret Mead study other cultures, but she also used her background in psychology, with the help of Ruth Benedict, to study more familiar territory - citizens of the United States; she especially studied the lives of students.
Margaret Mead, American cultural anthropologist
Ruth Benedict, American anthropologist
English: Title page of book Coming of Age in Samoa...Mead's extensive research in the fields of anthropology and human psychology warranted her a position on many national and international committees of mental health.
When Mead started her college education, she first studied psychology without much interest in anthropology, but this changed in her junior year of college when she took Franz class on anthropology that added to her academic interests. Margaret Mead went on to receive a Bachelor degree, Masters, and Ph. D. in sociology as well as earning many honorary degrees. Although Mead has accomplished more educationally than most people of her time and many people of today, her most noted accomplishments come from the fieldwork she was able to conduct because of her degrees. She studied cultures...