Margaret Mead

Margaret Mead (1901-1978) was an influential American cultural anthropologist, best known for her studies on the socialization of children in different cultures. Her book "Coming of Age in Samoa" (1928) challenged Western perspectives on adolescence, demonstrating that teenage angst is not universal but culturally conditioned. In 1935, Mead published "Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies," where she examined gender roles in New Guinea, arguing that masculinity and femininity are culturally constructed. She served as a curator of ethnology at the American Museum of Natural History and held a professorship at Columbia University. Mead was elected president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1975, a testament to her prominent role in the field of anthropology.