What do you think?
Rate this book
Family
see photos for full table of contents
208 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1965
52 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Mead
173 books489 followersMargaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist who was frequently a featured writer and speaker in the mass media throughout the '60s and '70s as a popularizer of the insights of anthropology into modern American and western life but also a respected, if controversial, academic anthropologist.
Her reports as to the purportedly healthy attitude towards sex in South Pacific and Southeast Asian traditional cultures amply informed the '60s "sexual revolution" and it was only at the end of her life and career that her propositions were – albeit controversially – challenged by a maverick fellow anthropologist and literate members of societies she had long before studied and reported on. Mead was a champion of broadened sexual mores within a context of traditional western religious life.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
Her reports as to the purportedly healthy attitude towards sex in South Pacific and Southeast Asian traditional cultures amply informed the '60s "sexual revolution" and it was only at the end of her life and career that her propositions were – albeit controversially – challenged by a maverick fellow anthropologist and literate members of societies she had long before studied and reported on. Mead was a champion of broadened sexual mores within a context of traditional western religious life.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 15, 2023
I wouldn’t suggest this book to anyone unless you want to see the photographs in it.
February 25, 2017
Written in 1965, the tone of the text reflects the sexism so prevalent of the time. This is summed up very well by the paragraph on page 100.
“Unlike the boy, whoe learns that he must go out into the world and make a place for himself by his own skill and bravery, the girl learns that her own body is the stage on which, first of all, she will act out he successes and her failures. Unlike the boy who flexes his arms and tenses the muscles with which he will tauten a bow string, wield an axe, rein in a horse, or brake a car, a girl may meditatively stroke her own skin as she wonders what kind of woman she will be and whether a child will ever stir in her.”
The book is essentially constructed from short sections of a few pages of text with the title os something about familial relationships followed by a set of photos of people in action taken in various countries. The images depict people engaged in activities that match the descriptions in the text.
If you can get past the sexism, the images are interesting and comforting. However, many modern readers will find the text somewhere between annoying and offensive.
“Unlike the boy, whoe learns that he must go out into the world and make a place for himself by his own skill and bravery, the girl learns that her own body is the stage on which, first of all, she will act out he successes and her failures. Unlike the boy who flexes his arms and tenses the muscles with which he will tauten a bow string, wield an axe, rein in a horse, or brake a car, a girl may meditatively stroke her own skin as she wonders what kind of woman she will be and whether a child will ever stir in her.”
The book is essentially constructed from short sections of a few pages of text with the title os something about familial relationships followed by a set of photos of people in action taken in various countries. The images depict people engaged in activities that match the descriptions in the text.
If you can get past the sexism, the images are interesting and comforting. However, many modern readers will find the text somewhere between annoying and offensive.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews