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The Oceanic Ethnography of Margaret Mead
Author(s) -
McDowell Nancy
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1980.82.2.02a00030
Subject(s) - ethnography , manus , conviction , sociology , anthropology , focus (optics) , work (physics) , law , geology , political science , engineering , mechanical engineering , paleontology , physics , optics
Margaret Mead did fieldwork in seven Oceanic societies: Samoa, Manus, Arapesh, Mundugumor, Tchambuli, Bali, and Iatmul. Several major concerns that characterize all of her ethnographic work are examined: her conviction that data must be useful; her experimentation with, and desire to improve, methods of ethnographic reportage; her focus on process and system; the importance of comparison; and the interplay between data and theory. Brief descriptions of each body of ethnographic material are provided, and special highlights of each are indicated. [ Oceania, ethnography, Margaret Mead ]