Coming of Age in Samoa: Book Studies Childhood Influences

Margaret Mead conducted her research in three small villages on the coast of the little island of Tao in the Manu Archipelago in Samoa located in the South Sea. Her central interest in this study concerns whether the disturbances that vex adolescents in America are due to adolescence itself or a symptom of civilization, and whether under different conditions will adolescence present a different picture. This study was spawned by the need to understand the adolescent in America of the age who were growing up without what was then defined as a "respected" home apart from the standards and religious values of their parents. Mead sought to analyze the difference in adolescence of a more primitive society in comparison to our own in hopes of finding a solution to the problems of an age group that is rarely studied in America. She did this by living with these primitive peoples for nine months, submersing herself in their culture, learning some of their language and gaining their trust. She then asked the girls of several age groups questions pertaining to their every day lives and based her research on the answers they gave.