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Teaching
The Problems With Coming of Age
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Unit 5

Samoan Voices

Three young men stand on a beach, wearing island-style shirts.

In this unit (to accompany the SAPIENS podcast S6 E3), students will compare the different responses of Samoans to Margaret Mead’s work and her publications on Samoa. Using Mead as a guide, students will inspect how “outsider” anthropologists and ethnographers examine cultures different from their own and the significance this has on global views of various cultures. Students will examine the way Samoans, being the insiders in the culture, viewed an outsider’s perspective on their culture and the conclusions Mead drew. This concept of insiders and outsiders will be further examined to explain how conclusions made by outsiders shape the global view of non-Western cultures.

Learning Objectives
  • Compare the different responses Samoans had to Mead’s work.
  • Inspect how “outsider” anthropologists represent “the other” and the consequences of this on global views.
Sapiens articles
A photograph features the corner of a large bookcase filled with books. The books’ various multicolored covers evoke patterns common on African wax print fabrics.
op-ed / Debate

Can Anthropology Be Decolonized?

Deborah A. Thomas and Kamari Maxine Clarke
In recent years, anthropology has increasingly reckoned with its colonial and racist roots. In a special forum, scholars weigh in on what “decolonizing” means—and share their visions for the future of the field.
A black-and-white photo features a man and child sitting next to another man who sits cross-legged and takes notes. Behind him, a woman also takes notes.
essay / Icons

Unsung Native Collaborators in Anthropology

Amrina Rosyada
Anthropologists such as Franz Boas and Margaret Mead could not have achieved success without their local assistants’ insider knowledge and extensive labor.
Keywords
View All in Heritage
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essay / Crossroads

Treasure Hunters Pose Problems for Archaeologists

Hipólito Sanchiz Alvarez de Toledo and Hipólito Sanchiz Alcaraz
Two scholars discuss the challenges of accurately studying underwater archaeological heritage—among them, unauthorized acquisitions.
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.
photo-essay / Expressions

The Vibrant Worlds of Batuan Paintings in Bali

Annie Tucker and Robert Lemelson
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.
A pair of hands arrange two placards covered with images of two different people’s faces on a table covered with a black tablecloth.
essay / Wayfinding

Restoring Faces and Dignity to Skeletal Remains

Victoria Gibbon
An anthropologist explains how a South African university used community-driven research to honor human remains acquired unethically.
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poem / Reflections

To Wear the Wind

Beni Sumer Yanthan
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.”
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.
essay / Viewpoint

Archaeological Tropes That Perpetuate Colonialism

Nicholas C. Laluk and Joseph Aguilar
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.
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.
poem / In Flux

Speaking in Tongues

Beni Sumer Yanthan
A scholar from Nagaland in India offers visceral, familial insights on language and culture loss in her Indigenous tribal community.
View All in Politics
A blue underwater scene features a scuba diver in a black wetsuit with a silver oxygen tank on their back. They point a light at a shipwreck of broken, moss-covered wooden beams.
essay / Crossroads

Treasure Hunters Pose Problems for Archaeologists

Hipólito Sanchiz Alvarez de Toledo and Hipólito Sanchiz Alcaraz
Two scholars discuss the challenges of accurately studying underwater archaeological heritage—among them, unauthorized acquisitions.
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.
essay / In Flux

Dismantling the Walls in Our Heads

Kerstin Lange
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.
Four deer with orange fur stand in a field of yellowing grass with a mountainous incline on the horizon.
essay / Crossroads

Past and Present Approaches to the Management of Red Deer

Jacqui Mulville
An archaeologist weighs the pros and cons driving debates around the rising population of Scotland’s renowned animal and explains what historical archaeology could add to the conversation.
A close-up image features the hands of a person wearing a black top with a colorful beaded necklace cradling a wooden pipe with a face carved into its top end.
op-ed / Standpoints

Collaborating So a 200-Year-Old Pipe Can Continue Its Work

Justin Jennings and Duke Peltier
A museum curator and a First Nations leader explain how a treaty pipe, sold at auction, exemplifies a new path for repatriations in Canada.
Two people walk on a sandy shore with a large stone castle and wooden gate to their right.
essay / Origins

Ancient DNA Supports Swahili Oral Traditions

Chapurukha Kusimba and David Reich
Two researchers explain how ancient DNA research is helping to restore the origin story of the Swahili people along the coastal region of East Africa.
A colorful mosaic shows several people wearing helmets and holding metal shields in front of a pillared building.
essay / Decoded

The Rebellion Recorded on the Rosetta Stone

Jay Silverstein
An archaeologist explains how recent archaeological finds in Egypt expand our knowledge of a violent revolt discussed on the now-famous Rosetta Stone.
View All in Science
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.
op-ed / Viewpoint

I Was Penalized for Learning a Language at Home

Veronica Valencia Gonzalez
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.
An ornate engraving in a large stone wall depicts the head of a figure beneath sunrays. To its right are more figures etched into two levels on top of one another. On the left is an engraving of two feet.
essay / Decoded

What Ancient Egyptians Knew About Meteorites—Long Before Modern Astronomers

Victoria Almansa-Villatoro
An Egyptologist’s study of hieroglyphic texts has revealed that ancient Egyptians likely understood the celestial origins of iron-rich meteorites.
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.
essay / Redux

The Hidden Ancestry Extracted From an Ancient Pendant

Michelle Langley
An anthropologist explains how new forensics tools offer unprecedented answers to questions about who likely held or wore Stone Age objects.
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.
op-ed / Counterpoint

Extinguishing the Idea That Hobbits Had Fire

Elizabeth Grace Veatch
Research has overturned earlier claims that a diminutive human relative, Homo floresiensis, lit fires—but big stories die hard.
Shrouded in darkness, a round stone structure on the photo’s right side is illuminated by a light installed on the left side.
essay / Material World

Piecing Together the Puzzle of Oman’s Ancient Towers

Smiti Nathan
In recent years, the Omani government has invested in archaeology and heritage tourism to boost its economy—renewing interest in mysterious 4,000-year-old towers that dot the Southeastern Arabian landscape.
A large furry, horned animal stands on grassy terrain with a forest behind and airborne dust surrounding it.
column / Unearthed

Why Store 41,000 Bison Bones?

Stephen E. Nash
An archaeologist explains why a museum keeps so many bones from the Jones-Miller site, an ice age bison kill on the North American plains.
Glossary
Emic

  1. An approach in anthropology where an anthropologist studies a culture from inside the culture, also known as an insider perspective.

Etic

  1. An approach in anthropology where an anthropologist studies a culture from outside the culture, also known as an outsider perspective.

Multivocality

  1. Meaning many voices; an approach to archeology and anthropology that emphasizes the voices of experts from different ethnicities, genders, classes, etc.

Professor Talking Points
  • Mead asked, “Are the disturbances which vex our adolescents due to the nature of adolescence itself or to the civilization? Under different conditions, does adolescence present a different picture?” Discuss the conclusions Mead drew based on this question. Ask students if they believe the disturbances are due to nature or civilization, and ask them to expand on their answers.
  • Seemingly, many Samoans have not read Mead’s book or Freeman’s work. Yet they have opinions on the conclusions drawn by both anthropologists. Discuss why some Samoans may be unfamiliar with these works, and why others may have chosen not read them. More broadly, discuss the problems of drawing conclusions based on hearsay.
  • Discuss the problems of categorizing a culture based on an “outsider’s” writing on the culture and compare the two conclusions and means of reaching them.
  • Many Samoans rejected Mead’s conclusions and felt hostile after hearing what was written about them. Mead wrote about the less restrictive attitudes in Samoa around sex and sexual conduct compared to Western cultures. Some Samoans argued that Mead neglected to examine the ceremonial importance of virginity in some sectors of Samoan society. Discuss how two opposite claims can be made about the same culture. Discuss how being an “insider” (emic) or an “outsider” (etic) can influence the perspective.
  • Both Mead and Freeman used Samoan society as the basis of their research. Missing from the debate was the voice of Native Samoans themselves. Based on The Trashing of Margaret Mead chapter nine, and the SAPIENS podcast, share some of Samoans’ reactions to the anthropologists’ works, and how  they categorize adolescence and the adolescent experience on their island.
Academic Articles

  1. Miller, Daniel. “How Can Anthropological Research Impact the Populations It Studies? Six Steps for Creating Inclusivity and Accessibility with Ethnographic Monographs.” Impact of Social Sciences (blog), August 18, 2020.

  2. Naaeke, Anthony, Anastacia Kurylo, Michael Grabowski, David Linton, and Marie Radford. “Insider and Outsider Perspective in Ethnographic Research” Proceedings of the New York State Communication Association 2010, no. 9 (2012).

  3. Pink, Sarah, and Vaike Fors.  “Ethnography, Stakeholders, and Audiences: Toward Openness and Inclusivity.” Sociological Research Online 22, no. 4 (2017): 169-173.

  4. Shankman, Paul. “The History of Samoan Sexual Conduct and the Mead-Freeman Controversy.” American Anthropologist 98, no. 3 (1996): 555-567.

Student Discussion Questions
  • What does it mean to be an outsider? What are the benefits of an outside anthropologist studying another culture? What are the disadvantages?
  • How did Samoan people react to Mead’s published work?
  • How has Mead’s work and writing influenced the West’s view on Samoa and the Samoan people?
  • Who gets to tell the story of a people? Whose voices are elevated, and whose are often buried? What effect does that have on the story?
Activities
  • Create a Venn diagram to compare and contrast at least two Samoan responses to Mead’s writing.
  • Create a trifold to compare three Samoan responses to Mead’s work.
  • Write an essay comparing and contrasting Mead’s ideas in her book and the Samoan people’s response to her ideas.
  • Who should tell the story? Write an argumentative essay explaining who should write about a culture and why. In your essay, explain what an “outsider” anthropologist is and why you think they should or should not be the one writing on a culture different from their own.
  • Write a description of how Samoan culture was viewed based on anthropological works on Samoa. Include Mead’s perspective in this description.
Slides

Infographic: Samoans’ Responses to Mead’s Work

Presentation: The Voices of Samoans

Additional Resources

  1. Article: New York Times’ “Samoan Leader Declares ‘Both Anthropologists are Wrong”

  2. Book: Paul Shankman’s The Trashing of Margaret Mead

  3. Exhibition: Library of Congress’ “Margaret Mead: Human Nature and the Power of Culture”

Unit By

Jasmine Rubel, Freedom Learning Group

Teaching
The Problems With Coming of Age
-
Unit 6

Positioning the Anthropologist

Two legs in flipflops hang off a cliff, taken from the perspective of the person sitting there. The ocean is soft focused in the distance. The overall effect is topsy-turvy.