Margaret Mead

Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist.

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She was born in Philadelphia and raised in nearby Doylestown by a university professor father and a social activist mother. She graduated from Barnard College in 1923 and received her Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1929. She set out in 1925 to do her field work in Polynesia. In 1926 Mead joined the American Museum of Natural History, New York City, as assistant curator, eventually serving as its curator of ethnology from 1946 to 1969. In addition, she taught at Columbia University as adjunct professor starting in 1954. Following the example of her instructor Ruth Benedict, Mead concentrated her studies on problems of child rearing, personality, and culture. (Source: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition, 1993.)

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There has been controversy surrounding her work, especially her first book, Coming of Age in Samoa (1928), based on research she conducted as a graduate student, but her position as a pioneering anthropologist -- one who wrote clearly and vividly enough for the general public to read and learn from her works -- remains firm.

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She died in New York on 15 November 1978, aged 76.

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December 16: December 16 is the 350th day of the year (351st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 15 days remaining....

1901: 1901 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar)....

1978: 1978 was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar)....

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