Teaching
The Problems With Coming of Age
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Unit 12
The Influence of Freeman and Mead
In this unit (to accompany the SAPIENS podcast S6E6), students go beyond Freeman and Mead’s controversy to explore the repercussions of nature versus nurture in American scholarly debates from the 1980s to the 2000s. Students will research how these debates trickled into mass media reporting and affected American society.
Learning Objectives
- Assess how the nature vs. nurture debate shaped American society in the 1980s and 1990s.
- Relate how Freeman and Mead’s ideas shaped American views.
Sapiens articles
How Twin Culture Challenges Our Notions of Self
Researchers have long viewed identical twins as mutants, oddballs, and freaks. Bothered by a biased scientific literature, two anthropologists who are also identical twins conduct their own twin ethnographic research.
No, “Racial Genetics” Aren’t Affecting COVID-19 Deaths
The coronavirus pandemic is unequally affecting minority communities in the U.K. and the U.S. Racism, not race, explains the disparity.
Keywords
View All in Disease
![Colored in sepia tones, a photo shows a person in a dark headwrap and robes with a walking stick traveling behind a herd of sheep and goats on rocky terrain that rises into a steep hill.]()
![Three people toward the image’s left pull a green net with several lobsters in it from the water while a person wearing a straw hat puts lobsters into a bucket. Two other people look on.]()
![A black-and-white photograph features four people in a discussion, with three casually dressed facing one who has their hair pinned up and wears a white-collared dress. The latter speaks and points to a flyer on the wall.]()
![A photograph features three macaques with red faces and beige fur soaking in hot springs as a person takes their picture with a cellphone.]()
![A photo features blocks of wood put together in such a way that you can see the rings of the trees they were made from.MirageC/]()
![covid race genetics - In the U.K., people of black, Asian, and minority ethnic backgrounds have been disproportionately hard hit by COVID-19.]()
What Ancient Goat Teeth Reveal About Animal Care
Unraveling a mystery around millennia-old goat bones, an archaeologist reflects on the harm people can cause their most cherished animals.
Neighborliness Matters to Your Health
Drawing from cross-cultural research, an anthropologist shows how neighborliness can lessen wealth-based health disparities.
A Native Alaska Community’s Reckoning With Vaccine Hesitancy
An anthropologist’s research with Tlingit communities in Alaska shows they have good reasons to be skeptical about vaccines. They know their history.
Does “Monkeypox” Give Monkeys a Bad Name?
The debate over naming the virus known as monkeypox says a lot about the close—but fraught—relationships between humans and our fellow primates.
Misperceiving Life Expectancy in the Deep Past
An archaeologist explains that most people do not calculate life expectancy correctly. This leads to misunderstandings.
No, “Racial Genetics” Aren’t Affecting COVID-19 Deaths
The coronavirus pandemic is unequally affecting minority communities in the U.K. and the U.S. Racism, not race, explains the disparity.
View All in Identity
![In a brick-covered public square surrounded by buildings, a metal statue features two people with flattened fronts and their hands extended sideways facing each other. They stand on opposite sides of a gap in the rounded brick hill they are built on.]()
![Several pink stemless flowers surrounded by white dust and yellow particles float in mid-air against a black background.]()
![Dark gray clouds hang in a pale blue sky. With orange light shining from behind them, these clouds seem to touch dark rolling hills scattered with trees and buildings.]()
![A black silhouette of a person contrasts with an illuminated cobalt-blue background with two bright spotlights shining from behind their head.]()
![A close-up image features the wrinkled hands of a person wearing a cardigan and printed skirt as they mold clay into a bowl shape.]()
![A close-up image features a mostly red, woven piece of cloth with diagonal patterns that incorporate white, black, green, and hot pink accents.]()
Dismantling the Walls in Our Heads
The Berlin Wall fell more than three decades ago—but political, social, and economic divides between East and West Germany continue to reverberate, even among those born after Reunification.
To Wear the Wind
A tribal scholar from the state of Nagaland in India engages with the loss of traditional cultural practices and locates the creation of a new world order where the “natural” is increasingly isolated from the “human.”
Speaking in Tongues
A scholar from Nagaland in India offers visceral, familial insights on language and culture loss in her Indigenous tribal community.
Bringing Nhakpoti, the Kayapó Story of Star Girl, to the Screen
Over years and across long distances, an international filmmaking team collaborated to bring to life the origin story of how agriculture came to Kayapó communities, Indigenous peoples in the Brazilian Amazon.
What Pots Say—and Don’t Say—About People
Archaeologists long abandoned the simple notion that “pots are people”—that people’s identities directly correspond with the pottery they made and used. What, then, can ceramics reveal about past lives?
Feeling What We Are/A’yel jtaleltik
An anthropologist and writer from the Tseltal community speaks back to a colonialist history of suppression—instead claiming his identity, language, and people.
View All in Genetics
![A landscape features a grassy complex with a large, tiered structure made of stones that towers upward toward a blue, cloud-filled sky. Mountains taller than the structure are barely visible behind clouds in the distance.]()
![In a science lab, a masked person wearing a white hazmat suit, face shield, and bouffant cap holds small objects under the glass hood of a silver metal workstation.]()
![An aerial photograph features a large arc-shaped complex of stone ruins showing the remains of rectangular rooms and circular sacred gathering places.]()
![A photograph features a group of people in patterned clothing gathered on a sandy plot with domed huts visible in the distance. In front, two people dance as others cheer.]()
![A photograph features a hand holding a ripe red strawberry.]()
![A photograph shows, through glass, a person with short black hair wearing glasses, a necklace, and a black shirt pointing at a graphic of stick figures. Different clusters of stick people interact in different scenarios as various red lines surround them, with several lines intersecting at a central node.]()
Decoding Diversity and Power at Machu Picchu
New DNA analysis has revealed surprising diversity among remains from burial sites in Peru. A genetic anthropologist explains what this suggests about the 15th century Inca palace.
The Hidden Ancestry Extracted From an Ancient Pendant
An anthropologist explains how new forensics tools offer unprecedented answers to questions about who likely held or wore Stone Age objects.
Navigating the Ethics of Ancient DNA Research
Paleogenomic research has expanded rapidly over the past two decades, igniting heated debates about handling human remains. Who gives consent for the ancient subjects of studies—and who should speak for them today?
Did Humanity Really Arise in One Place?
New evidence is prompting researchers to rethink Homo sapiens’ origin story—and what it means to be human.
Is a “Sweet Tooth” Genetic?
An anthropologist explains the evolutionary origins of why so many people seem practically programmed to love sugar.
How Diverse Was Medieval Britain?
An archaeologist explains how studies of ancient DNA and objects reveal that expansive migrations led to much greater diversity in medieval Britain than most people imagine today.
View All in Economics
![A person’s gloved hands touch an Amazon-labeled cardboard box that is one of several packages.]()
![Three people toward the image’s left pull a green net with several lobsters in it from the water while a person wearing a straw hat puts lobsters into a bucket. Two other people look on.]()
![A close-up image of a thin branch covered with pink flowering plants is in focus in front of a blurrier background of larger tree branches covered with similar pink flowers.]()
![A photograph features a narrow street lined with tall white and beige buildings. Left of the photo’s center, a large telephone pole has numerous wires extending from it.]()
![A black-and-white picture shows a woman carrying a baby in a front harness looking at two people examining objects on the floor of a cave under a standing light.]()
![A colorful illustration shows two hands toasting with beers, people spitting water at each other, a person floating on a yellow tube in the water in front of boats lined up together, and two people laughing.]()
The Anthropology Professor in an Amazon Warehouse
To learn what conditions are really like for Amazon workers, an anthropologist has joined their ranks.
Neighborliness Matters to Your Health
Drawing from cross-cultural research, an anthropologist shows how neighborliness can lessen wealth-based health disparities.
The Human Roots of Japan’s Cherry Blossoms
Most cherry blossom trees planted in Japan today are the iconic pale-pink somei-yoshino variety—but its reign may be coming to an end.
In Lebanon, Solar Power Is Booming. Why?
An anthropologist explores whether Lebanese turning to solar power is a story of resilience, environmental triumph, or something else.
Impossible Choices at the Crossroads of Motherhood and Fieldwork
Two anthropologists who’ve conducted fieldwork while being pregnant or new moms bravely share their personal experiences and call for family-friendly work cultures that align with human evolution.
Unmasked: Illustrating COVID-19 in Okoboji
An anthropologist and comic artist collaborated to bring to life the cultural squabbles and social complexities of the first pandemic year in Okoboji, a tourist town in northwest Iowa.
Professor Talking Points
- Freeman’s 1983 book criticizing Mead’s work was met with charged emotion. In this book, Freeman focused on the nature versus nurture debate, a hot discussion topic during the 1980s. He posed Mead as “anti-biological, anti-evolutionary, and anti-scientific” (Shankman 2001,181). However, as Mead supporters pointed out, Mead’s decades-long work and research in Samoa demonstrated her consideration of biological and cultural attributes in her research.
- Freeman’s supporters pinned Mead as an “archaic and misguided cause of cultural determinism” (Shankman 2001). This undermined her reputation as an American icon and pioneering figure in anthropology.
- Freeman and his supporters were accused of cherry-picking and missing the main arguments in Mead’s work. Mead was not a staunch cultural determinist. She had recently addressed two major associations on the importance of evolution and genetics (American Anthropological Association in 1961 and American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1976).
- During the 1980s, the controversy sparked nature versus nurture discussions in numerous fields. Discussions were based on whether people were born (nature) with certain personalities or inclinations versus learning behaviors (nurture). Some people used pseudo-scientific claims based on nature versus nurture to prop themselves as biologically better than others. The debates quickly escalated into heated topics such as race and sexuality.
- After Freeman’s book was published in 1983, Samoans found more public space to criticize Mead’s work in Samoa for depicting their culture as embracing sexual promiscuity. Mead wrote her book for an American audience, and although she believed she portrayed Samoans positively, many Samoans felt she had skewed their reality. Many Samoans refuted that their culture valued female virginity, or at the very least, did not participate in sexual relations to the extent Mead portrayed. When Mead visited Samoa in 1971, a young Samoan woman challenged Mead on her claims on television (Shankman 2021, 188). This created more doubt surrounding the accuracy of Mead’s research. However, at the time Freeman published his book, Mead had been deceased for five years and could not defend herself.
- Samoans did not entirely side with Freeman, either. Many believed he painted their culture to another extreme with sexual purity, violence, and aggressiveness. In 1987, Freeman and filmmaker Frank Heimans visited Samoa to interview Fa’apua’a, one of Mead’s informants, for a documentary entitled Margaret Mead and Samoa (1988). Freeman attests that Fa’apua’a confessed to hoaxing Mead on camera; however, she appears to have memory problems during the interview and doesn’t offer a confession, merely answering questions posed by Galea’i Poumele, a high-ranking Samoan Chief who had spoken against Mead in the past (Shankman 2013).
- In 1999, Freeman published The Fateful Hoaxing of Margaret Mead, which claimed Mead was tricked by an informant. Freeman concluded that Mead had been naive and inexperienced; therefore, it was not entirely her fault that she produced inaccurate research.
Academic Articles
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Appell, George N. “Freeman’s Refutation of Mead’s Coming of Age in Samoa: The Implication for Anthropological Inquiry.” The Eastern Anthropologist 37 (1984): 183-214.
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Doughty, Howard. “Nature, Nurture, and Story-telling—Part 1: The Freeman-Mead Controversy.” College Quarterly 14, no. 2 (2011).
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Ortiz, Daniel. “Creating Controversy: Essentialism and Constructivism and the Politics of Gay Identity.” Virginia Law Review 79, no. 7 (1993): 1833-1857.
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Pinker, Steven. “Why Nature & Nurture Won’t Go Away.” Daedalus 133, no. 4 (2004): 5-17.
Student Discussion Questions
- Compare and contrast what a 1980s and 2000s article says regarding nature versus nurture. How has our understanding of the debate grown? What questions have been answered or arisen?
- Why is it important to understand what plays a larger role in human development, nature or nurture? What solutions or explanations are useful once we pinpoint the reasons why we are the way we are?
- In his article summarizing the Mead and Freeman controversy, “Nature, Nurture and Story-telling—Part 1: The Freeman-Mead Controversy,” Doughty states the controversy “stands as one of the more important sources of data on the anthropology of anthropology.” What does he mean by that?
- What kind of ethics come into play when using twins for nature versus nurture studies? Are there other effective ways to study this topic without using twins?
Activities
- In the article, “How Twin Culture Challenges Our Notions of Self,” the author points out twins were used in nature versus nurture research for much of history. Find an article utilizing twins to explain a cultural or genetic occurrence. Do you think using twins in the study satisfies the questions posed by researchers, or is more work needed?
- Watch Three Identical Strangers in “Additional Resources.” Based solely on this example, what do you think plays a larger role in human development, nature or nurture? Discuss your ideas in a small group.
- Had Margaret Mead been alive for Freeman’s criticisms of her work, how would she respond? Write a response, as Mead, to one of Freeman’s works.
Additional Resources
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Article: Kaveh Majlesi, Paul J. Devereux, Petter Lundborg, and Sandra Black’s “The Role of Nature Versus Nurture in Wealth and Other Economic Outcomes and Behaviours”
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Article: Leah McLaren’s “Does Parenting Even Matter?”
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Article: Robin McKie’s “What Makes Us? Nature or Nurture? The DNA Debate Comes Back to Life”
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Documentary: Tim Wardle’s “Three Identical Strangers”
Unit By
Catherine Torres, Freedom Learning Group
Teaching
The Problems With Coming of Age
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Unit 13
The Anthropology of Sexuality
