Teaching
The Problems With Coming of Age
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Unit 6
Positioning the Anthropologist
In this unit (to accompany the SAPIENS podcast S6E3), students will track the changes in anthropological scholarship by looking at the study of anthropology before and after Mead’s groundbreaking publication, Coming of Age in Samoa. Students will plot the major theories in anthropology in the 19th and 20th centuries. Students will evaluate the movement in the field of anthropology to be more inclusive and to consider positionality, self-reflexivity, and multivocality.
Learning Objectives
- Describe the study of anthropology prior to Mead and the changes in anthropological scholarship after the release of Mead’s early work.
- Evaluate the movement toward inclusivity, the positionality of the ethnographer, self-reflexivity, and multivocality in anthropology and ethnography.
Sapiens articles
Who Gets to Study Whom?
As the field of anthropology struggles to shed its colonial past, the discipline has inadvertently put constraints on anthropologists of color who already face racism, bias, and discrimination.
Indigenous Cultures Have Archaeology Too
In Papua New Guinea, Indigenous peoples have been interpreting their ancestral landscapes for generations.
Keywords
View All in Colonialism
![In the foreground, four people wear sombreros and ride on horseback. Three of them carry U.S. and Mexican flags while looking up and gesturing toward a helicopter overhead. A crowd of people walk in front of them.]()
![Several pink stemless flowers surrounded by white dust and yellow particles float in mid-air against a black background.]()
![A person wearing a brown floral shirt, red beaded necklace, and feather in their hair closes their eyes. In a blurred background, other people—one holding a red-and-white STOP sign—gather on a lawn in front of a white building.]()
![Two people in uniforms—one in black, the other in tan—wearing black boots and hats topped with matching fans face each other and kick one leg up, their feet traveling above their heads. Other people in uniform stand at attention along the roadside behind them.]()
![In a sepia-and-white color palette, two hands cup a pile of sand, much of which is falling between the fingers.]()
![A close-up image features a mostly red, woven piece of cloth with diagonal patterns that incorporate white, black, green, and hot pink accents.]()
I Was Penalized for Learning a Language at Home
A researcher explains why the Fulbright-Hays fellowship should change its rules that have kept native and heritage speakers from working where their languages are spoken.
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.”
Archaeological Tropes That Perpetuate Colonialism
Two Indigenous archaeologists from the U.S. Southwest shed light on how “abandonment” and other common archaeological terms continue to cause harm. They offer insights into how to rewrite narratives of the past.
Imagining Other Worlds at the India-Pakistan Border
For decades, soldiers at the border between Attari, India, and Wagah, Pakistan, have staged an elaborate ceremony for onlookers. An anthropologist reflects on the ceremony as a legacy of Partition—and imagines other futures for the two nations.
Cold Hubris and Fundo
A poet-historian reflects on the legacy of colonial-era collecting practices in Tanzania that tore Black Indigenous ancestors from their communities and history.
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 Ethics
![A pair of hands arrange two placards covered with images of two different people’s faces on a table covered with a black tablecloth.]()
![A person wearing a brown floral shirt, red beaded necklace, and feather in their hair closes their eyes. In a blurred background, other people—one holding a red-and-white STOP sign—gather on a lawn in front of a white building.]()
![A close-up image features a person’s hand holding a car’s steering wheel. On the driver’s wrist is a silver bracelet of circles with figures etched into each.]()
![Behind a red carpet, a large poster features a person in a brown brimmed hat holding up a whip over a cluster of other people. A pillared building lies in the background opposite yellow and orange text that reads, “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. It is flanked by display cases, one holding a bronze time dial.]()
![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 photograph features a child with a cochlear implant sitting on a wooden chair at the end of a hallway. They are looking down at a handheld device they are using.]()
Restoring Faces and Dignity to Skeletal Remains
An anthropologist explains how a South African university used community-driven research to honor human remains acquired unethically.
Archaeological Tropes That Perpetuate Colonialism
Two Indigenous archaeologists from the U.S. Southwest shed light on how “abandonment” and other common archaeological terms continue to cause harm. They offer insights into how to rewrite narratives of the past.
What Happens When Catholic Medals Become Mainstream Jewelry
Retailers are selling medallions cherished by Catholics who favor conservative gender roles. Are secular buyers sporting anti-feminist symbols?
What Indiana Jones Gets Right About Archaeology
As Dr. Jones returns to the big screen, a real archaeologist acknowledges the movie franchise's shortcomings while espousing its merits.
Neighborliness Matters to Your Health
Drawing from cross-cultural research, an anthropologist shows how neighborliness can lessen wealth-based health disparities.
Who Pays the Price When Cochlear Implants Go Obsolete?
Some cochlear implant users can’t afford to keep up with compulsory technology upgrades. After becoming dependent on the devices, they’re losing their hearing and feel abandoned by manufacturers.
View All in Methods
![Under an arched ceiling, a person wearing a white headwrap and T-shirt nestles a pencil in the palm of their hand while drawing with charcoal on a large white canvas. The scene they are sketching depicts a building and public square flanked by flowering trees.]()
![A small mammal with brown fur sits on a grassy field with few blades of grass sticking out of its mouth.]()
![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.]()
![A graphic features a mastodon with its head raised and mouth open on rocky ground in front of a blue sky filled with swirling lights.]()
![A black silhouette of a person contrasts with an illuminated cobalt-blue background with two bright spotlights shining from behind their head.]()
The Vibrant Worlds of Batuan Paintings in Bali
A new multimedia project connects the development of a Balinese regional painting style with anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, who began commissioning art in the region in the 1930s.
Ancient Pollen Is Hiding in a Surprising Place
A paleoecologist explains what pollen in fossilized mammal urine can reveal about past ecosystems and environmental change.
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.
Forensic Methods Unveil Clues About Megafauna Extinctions
An archaeologist explains how novel applications of forensic methods—namely, blood residue analyses—have yielded evidence that Paleoindians hunted mastodons, mammoths, and other megafauna in eastern North America 13,000 years ago.
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.
Glossary
Inclusivity
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The practice of providing equal opportunities and resources to people from different backgrounds, especially those from marginalized communities who may otherwise be left out.
Multivocality
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An approach to data collection and interpretation that includes multiple perspectives and worldviews.
Positionality
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The anthropologist’s awareness of their position, power, and perspective compared to the culture they are studying.
Self-reflexivity
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The practice of self-criticism and reflection to acknowledge and understand the way the anthropologist’s own culture and personal experiences influence their views and biases.
Professor Talking Points
- Discuss the strides anthropology has made toward inclusivity and the movement to collaborate and elevate indigenous voices when studying different cultures.
- During the 19th century and early 20th century, anthropology was often dominated by anthropologists who came from colonizing nations. The debate between Freeman and Mead includes both of their conclusions about Samoan people. However, absent from the conversation was the voice of native Samoans and their conclusions about adolescence.
- Since Mead’s publication in 1928 and the later Mead-Freeman controversy, there has been a shift in anthropology work that moves to include native voices and emphasizes collaboration between native voices and anthropologists.
- Inclusivity within the study creates a better understanding of the culture being studied. A movement to decolonize anthropology brings to the forefront the debate over who gets to tell the story and the accuracy and truth found if only those from colonizing nations are given the microphone.
- Discuss the major theories of cultural anthropology from the 19th to the 21st centuries. Explain how Boas, Mead’s mentor, believed in cultural relativism and how this theory shaped Mead’s work and publication. What conclusions did Mead draw from being immersed in the culture?
- Why is inclusivity important in anthropology? Explain the need for multivocality and the insider perspective brought by Indigenous voices. Discuss how Indigenous voices were missing in anthropology in the 19th and early 20th centuries and the impact that had on anthropology.
- Allow students to debate if enough strides have been made in inclusivity and why.
Academic Articles
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Narayan, Kirin. “How Native Is a ‘Native’ Anthropologist?” American Anthropologist 95, no.3 (1993): 671-686.
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Nelson, Peter. “Where Have All the Anthros Gone? The Shift in California Indian Studies from Research ‘On’ to Research ‘With, For, and By’ Indigenous Peoples.” American Anthropologist 123, no.3 (2021): 469-473
Student Discussion Questions
- What does inclusivity look like in anthropology and ethnography? What does multivocality entail within the field of anthropology? How successful do you think the field has been in moving toward inclusivity?
- Read the SAPIENS article “Unsung Native Collaborators in Anthropology.” The author points out that Native peoples have often collaborated in anthropology but often did not receive the same recognition as their white counterparts. This was also true for Mead’s work. Have anthropologists improved in this area, and in what ways are anthropologists still lacking?
- What are the key theories of anthropology over time? Describe the ways anthropology changed in the 20th century.
- How has anthropology changed to be more inclusive since the 20th century? How is collaboration cultivated to encourage inclusivity?
- What are the roles of the positionality of the ethnographer, self-reflexivity, and multivocality in anthropology and ethnography?
Activities
- Create a timeline of the relevant theories in anthropology from the 19th century to the 21st century.
- Write a descriptive essay on the study of anthropology prior to Mead and discuss the changes that occurred after Mead’s publication. Compare the approaches.
- Find three recent examples of anthropological studies that are inclusive. Write a paper evaluating the inclusivity, the positionality of the ethnographer, and the self-reflexivity in each study.
Additional Resources
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Book: Margaret Mead’s Coming of Age in Samoa
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Film: Frank Heimans’ “Margaret Mead and Samoa”
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Podcast: Anthropological Theory: A Podcast Created by Anthropology Students “Postcolonialism”
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Video: Manufacturing Intellect’s “Margaret Mead Interview on Cultural Anthropology (1959)”
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Video: Smithsonian Education’s “Anthropologies of Inclusion: Recognizing a Common Humanity”
Unit By
Jasmine Rubel, Freedom Learning Group
Teaching
The Problems With Coming of Age
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Unit 7
Mead Versus Freeman
