Teaching
The Problems With Coming of Age
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Unit 8
Nature Versus Nurture
In this unit (to accompany the SAPIENS podcast S6E4), students will learn the origins of the nature versus nurture debate within the field of anthropology and explore where the debate currently stands. Students will examine the ways in which nature and nurture intersect. Students will explore how the lens of nature versus nurture shaped Freeman and Mead’s understanding of the Samoan people.
Learning Objectives
- Explore the concept of nature versus nurture from an anthropological standpoint and the ways the two intersect.
- Express how Freeman’s and Mead’s writings on Samoa incorporated the idea of nature versus nurture.
Sapiens articles
What Our Skeletons Say About the Sex Binary
Society increasingly accepts gender identity as existing along a spectrum. The study of people, and their remains, shows that sex should be viewed the same way.
Genetic Factors May Help Explain Athletic Sudden Death
Biological anthropologists and other researchers investigate why there is a diversity of symptoms and outcomes in people with sickle cell trait.
Keywords
View All in Evolution
![Two black-haired chimpanzees lie on the dirt ground in front of a blurred background of brown rocks and green, leafy trees.]()
![A close-up image features a pile of logs glowing red and surrounded by orange flames. Sparks fly up against a dark blue night sky.]()
![A person with a mustache and beard wearing a red-and-blue checkered shirt sits in a black computer chair and holds a white model of a mandible. Three computer monitors line the wooden desk the person is leaning their elbow on.]()
![Faces of various hominins span a large wall, each above a descriptive text block. From left to right, the faces get less hairy and lighter in skin tone.]()
![A young adult with short, platinum-blonde hair wearing a blue-and-white plaid flannel shirt sits on a long wooden bench in front of an open silver laptop. They look at the screen puzzlingly while holding up a yellow cellphone.]()
![A person on the right of the image looks out at a series of mountains with green trees and foliage.]()
Spend a Day Tracking Chimpanzees
A series of short videos captures a rare view into the lives of wild chimps through the eyes of a researcher.
Extinguishing the Idea That Hobbits Had Fire
Research has overturned earlier claims that a diminutive human relative, Homo floresiensis, lit fires—but big stories die hard.
A New Take on an Old Fossil Hints at Ancient Migrations
Two anthropologists explain how an enigmatic human fossil jawbone—and its 3D-printed reconstruction—may evidence an early Homo sapiens presence in Europe and shed new light on evolutionary diversity and migration.
How Power Pervades Portrayals of Human Evolution
An evolutionary scholar examines racist and sexist depictions of human evolution that continue to permeate science, education, and popular culture.
Twitter’s Blue Tick Is a Fake Signal
Evolutionary theory can help us better understand the recent debacle about social media platforms' popular symbol as a signaling problem.
On Flores Island, Do “Ape-Men” Still Exist?
Islanders have long claimed ape-like humans, remarkably similar to the fossil species Homo floresiensis, survive in secluded forests of Indonesia. An anthropologist investigates why.
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 Race
![Two people hug in a bathroom, with one seated on a closed toilet and the other kneeling on a tan-and-brown tiled floor. Two standing onlookers flank the image’s foreground.]()
![A person wearing a white dress whose skirt is made of ribbons, each with a name written on it, leans back with their eyes closed. They are on grass with a Black Lives Matter banner on the ground beside them and a circle of drummers and bystanders around them.]()
![A photograph shows an adult and child watching a black truck pass in front of a memorial of flowers and stuffed animals. The truck has several Canadian flags flying from it and carries a black banner with white text that reads, “Just now found but were never forgotten.”]()
![A photograph features a metal statue of a man on an elevated platform in a grassy circle in the center of a park. Orange and yellow flowers surround the platform.]()
![A photograph features a square area of concrete tiling in a park’s center with bench seating around its perimeter. At the center of the square is a stone statue of a man’s bust covered in red paint.]()
![A photograph features a large body of water with a cityscape visible in the distance. On the left side, a person stands on a wooden pier near a white sign that reads: “PLEASE KEEP YOUR PIER CLEAN. USE TRASH CANS.”]()
How Eugenics Shaped the U.S. Prenatal Care System
Black women in the U.S. are far more likely to die from complications related to pregnancy and birth than White women. Two scholars explore how the discrediting of Black midwives helped create these racial disparities—and call for alternative models of prenatal care.
The Urgency of Envisioning a World Without Police
An anthropologist working in Baltimore argues that safety for Black communities requires an end to policing. That also means taking a hard look at how policing intersects with patriarchy and intimate partner violence.
Advocating for Archaeology’s New Purpose
Archaeologists can help communities retake what colonialism and racism tried to erase through a new goal of “archaeological reclamation.”
How the Early Battle Over Race Science Was Lost
Celebrated 19th-century biologist Ernst Haeckel pushed race science as his little-known protégé Nikolai Miklucho-Maclay defended Indigenous rights. A biological anthropologist reflects on the impacts of their ruptured relationship.
To Decolonize, We Must End the World as We Know It
A contributor to a special series on decolonizing anthropology argues that true decolonization would require the complete dismantling of existing global power structures, including academic disciplines.
Planting Seeds for a More Ethical Future
Three contributors to a special series reflect on why slowing down and building trust between community partners is fundamental to decolonizing anthropology—and our shared future.
Glossary
Cultural determinism
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The belief that an individual’s culture influences one’s behaviors and emotions.
Eugenics
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A scientifically inaccurate theory that strives to select and reproduce desirable hereditary characteristics in order to improve future generations.
Professor Talking Points
- During the nineteenth century, the prevalence of Darwinism and evolutionary theory prompted scholars to distinguish natural (what something is born with, genetics, hereditary) versus environmental (parental upbringing, culture, surroundings) causes for animal traits and behaviors. The “nature versus nurture” controversy emerged in the late nineteenth century, with Sir Francis Galton coining the phrase.
- A key player arguing on the importance of nature was the biologist H.M. Parshley, who favored biological determination, eugenics, and hereditary traits. Another key player was Auguste Weismann. He promoted the theory of natural selection-driven evolution. In contrast, J.B. Watson and Franz Boas leaned into the side of nurture when determining people’s behavior. J.B. Watson popularized the theory of behaviorism in psychology and argued that a child’s environment shapes their behavior.
- Franz Boas, Margaret Mead’s mentor and professor, was a large promoter of cultural determinism and is credited with the theory of cultural relativism. He argued that a culture’s practices and traditions must be understood within that culture.
- Boas and early supporters of cultural determinism faced a unique problem. The idea that nature determines animal outcomes within their communities was a well-established dogma. Other supporters of the nature theory used the theory to support their racist ideologies. These individuals misused biological differences in order to classify humans into hierarchies. The misuse of information provided another motive for Boas to push cultural determinism. Freeman claimed, “the Boasians had an antipathy to biology, and to genetics and evolutionary biology in particular” (1998, p. 295). He uses this argument as evidence against Mead’s conclusions about the Samoan people.
- Freeman’s second book focuses on providing a detailed ethnography of the Samoans and pointing out Mead’s errors. The book includes a history of how the nature versus nurture debate began and its standing at the time of publication and an explanation for why Boas pushed against accepting any genetic study for behaviors.
- Mead had her own understanding of nature versus nurture. Regarding adolescence, Mead says, “If the same process takes a different form in two different environments, we cannot make any explanations in terms of the process, for that is the same in both cases. But the social environment is very different, and it is to it that we must look for an explanation” (Mead 1928, p. 159).
- Anthropologist Paul Shankman points out the lack of evidence and outright incorrect conclusions Freeman makes in his argument against Mead. Shankman notes that Freeman overemphasized the popularity of Mead’s Coming of Age in Samoa, disregarded Mead’s acknowledgment of biology in the book (and further work in promoting genetics in the anthropology field), and failed to provide transcripts for his hoax claim interviews. Time also played a factor in the work of Mead and Freeman. Mead was in Samoa in the 1920s, while Freeman studied Samoa in the 1940s and 1950s. The location of their studies varied as well.
- Today, many experts interchange the words “genetics” and “environment” for nature and nurture, respectively. “Environment” encompasses a broader range of interactions, not solely from parents and caregivers. During the mid-twentieth century, anthropologists were divided and felt compelled to pick a dominating factor in individual development. Today, it is widely accepted that both genetics and environment play a role in human development.
- Epigenetics, the study of how genes are expressed, has added an additional layer of complexity to the nature vs. nurture discussion in recent decades. Experts have found that some early childhood environmental factors may dictate what parts of an individual’s genetic code are “turned on.”
Academic Articles
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Barlow, Fiona Kate. “Nature vs. Nurture Is Nonsense: On the Necessity of an Integrated Genetic, Social, Developmental, and Personality Psychology.” Australian Journal of Psychology 71, no. 1 (2019): 68-79.
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Levitt, Mairi. “Perceptions of Nature, Nurture and Behaviour.” Life Sciences, Society and Policy 9, no. 13 (2013).
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Schneider, Susan M. “The Tangled Tale of Genes and Environment: Moore’s the Dependent Gene: The Fallacy of ‘Nature vs. Nurture.’” The Behavior Analyst 30, no. 1 (2007): 91-105.
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Shankman, Paul. “Culture, Biology, and Evolution: The Mead–Freeman Controversy Revisited.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence 29, no. 5 (2000): 539–556.
Student Discussion Questions
- How did eugenics spark in response to the cultural determinism movement in anthropology? Who were some of the major players?
- What is the crux of the nature versus nurture arguments? Can the two sides work together to explain human behavior?
- In their respective works, did Freeman and Mead acknowledge both nature and nurture in relation to developing human behaviors, or do they both strictly adhere to their ideals?
- What is the status of the nature versus nurture controversy in anthropology today?
- How have the arguments for nature versus nurture changed over the last 150 years? Where do you see nature versus nurture being debated today?
- Is it enough to cite a single example claiming nature or nurture are responsible for human behavioral development, or are multiple instances required to prove a theory? For example, is Mead’s work in Samoa enough to prove the nurture theory is applicable in all instances of adolescent behavior, or should it be viewed alongside examples of American adolescents?
Activities
- Select an anthropological study on human behavior. Discuss if the study demonstrates a nature, nurture, or mix of both explanations of human behavior.
- Write a paper exploring Freeman’s claim that Mead omitted biological discussions in her Samoan work. Does she purposefully deny nature’s impact on human behavior or simply focus on cultural (nurture) factors?
- List ways the perception of nature versus nurture within the anthropology field has evolved in recent decades, given new discoveries, understanding, and technologies.
Additional Resources
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Article: Evan Nesterak’s “The End of Nature Versus Nurture”
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Article: Hunter Honeycutt’s “Nature and Nurture as an Enduring Tension in the History of Psychology”
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Article: Psychology Today’s “Nature vs. Nurture”
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Book: Carl Degler’s In Search of Human Nature: The Decline and Revival of Darwinism in American Social Thought
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Book: Derek Freedman’s Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and Unmaking of an Anthropological Myth
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Book: Derek Freedman, The Fateful Hoaxing of Margaret Mead: A Historical Analysis of her Samoan Research
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Book: Margaret Mead’s Coming of Age in Samoa
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Podcast: Steven Pinker’s “Nature vs. Nurture: What’s More Impactful” in “The Life of the Mind, This is 42”
Unit By
Catherine Torres, Freedom Learning Group
Teaching
The Problems With Coming of Age
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Unit 9
Colonialism and Christianity in the South Pacific
