Teaching
The Problems With Coming of Age
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Unit 11
Unpacking the Mead–Freeman Controversy
In this unit (to accompany SAPIENS podcast S6E6), students will revisit the Mead–Freeman controversy in depth, reassess how Derek Freeman critiqued Margaret Mead, and then study the consequences of the dispute within the field of anthropology. Students will apply lessons from the controversy to current research and theories.
Learning Objectives
- Summarize the timeline of the Mead–Freeman controversy.
- Review the key points of the controversy.
Sapiens articles
Could Group-Organized Violence Be Rooted in Empathy?
The evolution of empathy may have conferred both the advantage of mercy and the tradeoffs of killing.
Compassion Sets Humans Apart
Much attention has focused on the apparent violence in humanity’s distant past. But evidence of kindness and care is much more widespread.
Keywords
View All in Violence
![A shadow of a person in a baseball cap holding a smartphone is cast against a gray wall.]()
![As the setting sun reflects on wet sand, a silhouetted figure runs on a beach surrounded by palm trees.]()
![A winged insect with black, white, and red coloring descends out of a clear blue sky. Vicki Jauron/Babylon and Beyond Photography/Getty Images]()
![A portion of a multicolored woven shawl features people moving boats down a river, with houses, mosques, and other structures on either side.]()
![Green, leafy trees grow out of a swamp that has green growth in the center of it.]()
![A gray-haired man sitting in a chair outside hits a chunk of flint stone with a hammer. The black and white photo is from 1923.]()
When Calls for Vengeance Go Online
An anthropologist reckons with how digital media has changed youth gang culture dynamics—and what can be done to combat the spread of deadly rumors.
A Poetics of Liberation: An Imagined Archive
A Tanzanian historian and poet conjures alternative engagements with Black African women who were marginalized by violent colonial histories and imprisoned in the archives. As the 2024 poet-in-resident at the magazine, she imaginatively reaches for new possibilities.
“Stop This Invader!”—The War on Spotted Lanternflies
An anthropologist reflects on the racist undertones of some U.S. efforts to eradicate the spotted lanternfly, an insect from Asia deemed invasive.
Erasure I and Erasure VI
In two erasure poems, a poet-anthropologist imagines alternative futures using text from the 1846 Treaty of Amritsar, through which the British “sold” Kashmir to a despotic Dogra ruler. The poems are from a six-part series titled Song of the First Spring.
Tallahassee Ghazal
Using an ancient Arabic poetic form, a poet-archaeologist from Florida cycles through feelings of entrapment growing up queer in the U.S. South. But in the end, they celebrate love for this place—and that “most of us are breathing.”
Debitage
Using an original poetic form, a poet chips away at a difficult history—becoming an agent of her own remaking and more than just an estranged daughter.
View All in Science
![Against a blue sky dotted with fluffy white clouds, a hand holds aloft a hollow cube filled with white, black, red, green, and yellow electronic components.]()
![Three small animals with tufts of white fur around their ears and gray, tan, and black fur on their bodies huddle together looking toward the camera.]()
![An ape-like mannequin, with protruding facial features and a body covered in fur, stands in a museum exhibition under dramatic lighting. Next to it, a text panel starts, “The human story begins.”]()
![A dark shelf leaning against a wall covered in gold-tinted wallpaper displays the personal items of a missing loved one, including a portrait of the person dressed in a black suit and tie, a photograph, a red plastic hard hat, and books.]()
![A stone figure with the body of a seated lion and the head of a person wearing a headdress sits in the foreground with a large stone pyramid towering in the distance.]()
![Against a black background, two faces in profile look in opposite directions. The one on the left has straight brown hair with pale skin, and the one on the right has slightly darker skin and disheveled orange hair.]()
The First Space Launch for Mauritius
An anthropologist recounts how a small island nation built and deployed its first satellite—and what their effort says about unequal access to the growing space economy on Earth.
Were Twins the Norm in Our Primate Past?
New research uncovers how the last common primate ancestors typically birthed twins until evolutionary pressures began to favor singletons—likely driven by the advantages of birthing larger, brainier offspring.
Lessons From Lucy
Fifty years ago, the remains of an Australopithecus afarensis ancestor, named “Lucy” by archaeologists, rewrote the story of human evolution.
For Families of Missing Loved Ones, Forensic Investigations Don’t Always Bring Closure
An anthropologist working in Azerbaijan looks beyond forensic science to understand the value of culturally specific ways people navigate uncertainty in protracted conflict zones.
Why I Talked to Pseudoarchaeologist Graham Hancock on Joe Rogan
An archaeologist explains his motivations and strategies for appearing on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast with a purveyor of misinformation about the ancient past.
Excavating the Coexistence of Neanderthals and Modern Humans
An archaeologist explains how remains recently recovered from a cave in present-day Germany suggest that Neanderthals and modern humans populated Europe together for at least 10,000 years.
View All in Race
![A winged insect with black, white, and red coloring descends out of a clear blue sky. Vicki Jauron/Babylon and Beyond Photography/Getty Images]()
![A person in sunglasses and a white N-95 face mask stands in a street holding a sign that reads: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Behind them, other demonstrators congregate.]()
![A person in army fatigues walks in front of a looming surveillance tower flanked by high fences topped with barbed wire.]()
![A gray-haired woman sits on an exam table in a light-filled doctor’s office and looks out a window.]()
![A black squirrel sits atop a trash can in a busy urban setting, with a crowd of people out-of-focus in the background.]()
![Two pairs of scissors, two rocks, and two slips of paper rest on a pale-yellow surface.]()
“Stop This Invader!”—The War on Spotted Lanternflies
An anthropologist reflects on the racist undertones of some U.S. efforts to eradicate the spotted lanternfly, an insect from Asia deemed invasive.
Fighting for Justice for the Dead—and the Living
A group of forensic anthropologists argues their field must reject the myth of pure objectivity and challenge systemic inequities through advocacy and activism.
An Order for My Backpack and Three Stages of Nowhere
A poet moves through rituals of silence and erasure that permeate the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
Doctors Are Taught to Lie About Race
Decades ago, anthropologists dispelled the myth of biological race. Lagging behind in scientific understandings of human diversity, the medical profession is failing its oath to “do no harm.”
Are People Projecting Racist Stereotypes Onto Squirrels?
Researchers refute a popular idea that black-furred squirrels behave more aggressively than gray ones—and suggest the myth stems from some people’s racist attitudes.
Playing Rock, Paper, Scissors Across the Red-Blue Divide
As toxic polarization deepens in the U.S., some global conflict prevention experts are now addressing political violence at home. An anthropologist shares three key insights from a community action program in Wisconsin.
Glossary
Discourse
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Written or spoken communication or debate.
Professor Talking Points
- Derek Freeman was trained in cultural anthropology and fully immersed himself in Borneo’s Iban culture in 1940–1943. Only after studying anthropology for more than two decades did he begin to question the validity of cultural anthropology and study more biologically based subjects, such as psychology, ethology, psychoanalysis, and neuroscience, in building an interdisciplinary background and perspective to view cultures. Discuss this change in perspective.
- Before making public criticisms of Margaret Mead’s work, Freeman’s colleagues often found disagreeing with him tedious and difficult and pointed out that his “vehemence and persistence beyond a decent point of disagreement often outweighed the virtue of what he had to say” (Hempenstall, Truth’s Fool: Derek Freeman and the War Over Cultural Anthropology 2017, 116). Explore this statement with students.
- In 1964, Freeman published “Psychiatry, Anthropology and the Doctrine of Cultural Relativism.” It was the beginning of his decades-long mission to refute the emphasis anthropologists placed on the influence of culture on human behavior. He believed culture was “projections of the human animal’s impulsive phylogenetically given nature,” whereas human nature was foundational and drove culture (Hempenstall 2017, 131). Lead students in discussing this statement.
- Freeman met with Mead at the Australian National University on November 10, 1964, and attended a seminar with her the following day. Based on Freeman’s comments during the seminar, some speculate that he was caught off guard. Explore how conflicting accounts of the emotions held by Freeman and Mead worked their way into modern literature and how Mead supporters claimed she “won” by pointing to her unshaken stature and composure at this time.
- Based on his diary entries, an apology letter to Mead, and comments in a 1996 interview about meeting her, Freeman expressed respect for Mead and thought their 1964 meeting was productive. In the letter, he stated that she made some mistakes in her Samoan work, and that he planned to research her errors. Mead responded with her now well-known phrase, “Anyway, what is important is the work” (Shankman, The Trashing of Margaret Mead: Anatomy of an Anthropological Controversy 2009). Explore this exchange with students.
- Mead rose to popularity long before Freeman published his critique of her work. An anthropologist and former student of Freeman described her as “successful, optimistic, with a fervent belief in the future, [and] she reaffirmed the hope of all Americans that through education everyone could become what he or she wanted to be” (Hempenstall 2017, 194).
- In her work, Mead “acknowledged adolescent stress but argued that the lives of Samoan adolescent girls were relatively less stressful than the lives of American girls in the 1920s” (Shankman 2021, 180). She acknowledged that puberty was a universal biological experience but positioned her argument into how the process was “managed” among differing cultures. Yet Freeman labeled Mead an “absolute cultural determinist” (Shankman 2021, 176).
Academic Articles
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Freeman, Derek. 1966. “Social Anthropology and the Scientific Study of Human Behaviour.” Man 1 (3): 330–342.
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Scheper-Hughes, Nancy. 1984. “The Margaret Mead Controversy: Culture, Biology, and Anthropological Inquiry.” Human Organization 43 (1): 85–93.
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Shankman, Paul. 2000. “Culture, Biology, and Evolution: The Mead–Freeman Controversy Revisited.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence 29: 539–556.
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Shankman, Paul. 2021. “The Mead–Freeman Controversy Continues: A Reply to Ian Jarvie.” Philosophy of the Social Sciences 48 (3): https://doi.org/10.1177/0048393117753067.
Student Discussion Questions
- If Freeman began to question Mead’s work after his 1943 trip to Samoa (as described by Hempenstall [2017] and in various interviews), why did he not publish his misgivings until 20 years later?
- Freeman attributes the events at Kuching in Borneo as career-altering in terms of his intellectual pursuits; it was after this, however, that colleagues and other professionals saw him in a mentally unstable light. If Kuching’s events had not occurred (or were kept quiet), would the field of anthropology have been more accepting of Freeman’s new ideas? How much does “mental stability” and how an individual expresses their ideas play a role in accepting those ideas?
- Read the SAPIENS debate articles under “Why Are Humans Violent?” Do any of the essays sway your thinking in answering the question more than the others? Why?
- Why has the Mead–Freeman controversy lasted decades, with works discussing it still published?
- New research continuously changes the way people think about the world. Take the revelation that Homo floresiensis did not light fires (see “Extinguishing the Idea That Hobbits Had Fire”). How is this change similar to the Mead–Freeman controversy? How is it different?
Activities
- Read Freeman’s New York Times obituary, by John Shaw, under Additional Resources. How did the New York Times explain Freeman’s work and his controversy with Mead? Now read a letter to the New York Times editor from Louise Lamphere, published on August 12, 2001. Discuss how the media played a role in developing and prolonging the controversy between Mead and Freeman.
- In a group setting, split the students into Mead supporters and Freeman supporters. Ask each group to present their anthropological points regarding Samoa and the controversy.
- Select a current controversial topic and citing credible sources examine both sides of the debate. Write what both sides have to say about each position. Consider if the media or advocacy groups played a role in promoting one or both sides. Is there a clear “winner”? Why or why not?
Additional Resources
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Article: John Shaw’s “Derek Freeman, Who Challenged Margaret Mead on Samoa, Dies at 84”
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Book: Derek Freeman’s Margaret Mead and the Heretic
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Video: Documentary Educational Resources’ Odyssey Series’ “Margaret Mead: Taking Note. PREVIEW”
Unit By
Catherine Torres, Freedom Learning Group
Teaching
The Problems With Coming of Age
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Unit 12
The Influence of Freeman and Mead
