Microblogs #2 - Coming of Age in Samoa

References:
Title: Coming of Age in Samoa
Author: Margaret Mead
Venue: Edited by ; 1908

Chapter #1:
Summary:
In this chapter, Mead discusses the reasoning behind this research: the need to discover the cause of rebelliousness during adolescent years. She then discusses her different approach to the problem as compared to her predecessors. Instead of trying to create a laboratory or making inferences on normal Americans, she is going to a society with a completely different makeup and make comparisons to American life.

Discussion:
This introduction has already garnered my interest for this book. The debate on nature is interesting to me, and I want to know what similarities she finds between this completely isolated group and our connected world today.


Chapter #2:
Summary:
In this chapter, Mead discusses an average day in a village in Samoa from dawn to dusk. She discusses it in a loose chronological fashion, following the central village as opposed to the hunters or fishers.

Discussion:
I have to say that I wasn't particularly interested in this chapter at all. I didn't really learn anything new, but I assume this is just laying the groundwork for a later point.


Chapter 3:
Summary:
In this chapter, Mead describes how both sexes are raised from birth until maturity. She mentions how girls are saddled with child care until puberty and then given individual tasks to work on afterward. By contrast, the boys care for children for a smaller time and then work on cooperative tasks, which causes them to be much more adept at working together than the girls.

Discussion:
This chapter was interesting because we begin to see the first differences between their culture and ours. Because of the way the women are raised, they have no skills at cooperation, which leads to a lot of trouble down the line. Meanwhile, the boys are taught to only slightly excel, which causes them to be highly competitive.


Chapter #4:
Summary:
In this chapter, Mead discusses the inner workings of the Samoan household. She shows that these households are more complex than American families; they contain relatives by blood, marriage, and even adoption. She then discusses the situations that occur due to family titles, which cause further complications and rivalry.

Discussion:
This chapter was interesting because of the many stories she told about the search for title-bearers. Some of the competitions she describes are so complex that I wasn't able to follow a couple of them to the end.


Chapter #5:
Summary:
In this chapter, Mead describes the relationships between children in their age groups. She finds that girls only associate with their own age groups for a few years, while boys associate with their age groups for 5 or more. She found that the males' relationships lasted longer due to that extra time.

Discussion:
This chapter was interesting because it showed more of the effects of the responsibility difference between the genders. The girls got to have less relationship-building time than their male counterparts because of their babysitting. I would also like to note that I don't find the individual examples terribly enlightening.


Chapter #6:
Summary:
In this chapter, Mead discusses the differences between the community groups of women and men. She shows the supreme importance of the men's social group and the relative unimportance of the women's. Finally, she mentions that this rift in importance doesn't show that Samoan women don't focus on social climbing; they are focused on social tasks in the family group instead of the community.

Discussion:
This chapter wasn't terribly engaging to me, but it did serve to show more of the rift between men and women in Samoa. I did find it interesting that the "princesses" of the village actually have to do more work than the other girls in many situations.


Chapter #7:
Summary:
In this chapter, Mead discusses the relationships between boys and girls in Samoa, from courtship and casual sex to marriage. She then goes on to discuss some of the more odd occurrences in relationships, including eloping and a phenomenon called the moetotolo.

Discussion:
This chapter was interesting just from the standpoint of how bizarre these relations seemed to me. From the random promiscuous relations to the soa, the methods of courtship are completely different from ours. It was also interesting to see how the influence of Christianity has slightly modified many of these relations.


Chapter #8:
Summary:
In this chapter, Mead describes the role of dancing in the lives of Samoans. She describes the main types of dances as well as the social aspects of them. She then mentions that in many ways dancing allows even the crippled to be equal to everyone else; she also mentions that a deficiency in dance can be as crippling as a learning disorder in our society.

Discussion:
This chapter was interesting because it finally showed a method of stress relief for the Samoans, who so far had what seemed to be a completely overbearing culture. The fact that it put a lot of pressure on the less social was quite interesting, because it held some parallels with schooling here.


Chapter #9:
Summary:
In this chapter, Mead describes the personalities of the Samoan people. She finds that they have an odd way of trying to prevent people from feeling sadness or anger, but when they occur they just give up on it immediately. She also found that the older people didn't seem to believe in individual personality and instead wanted everyone to follow the same lines.

Discussion:
This chapter was interesting mainly because of how oppressive to me the place feels. In the preceding chapters, Mead showed us that boys and girls are forced to not excel too much, and now it appears that they can't even show their own personalities. I certainly wouldn't want to live in a place like that.


Chapter #10:
Summary:
In this chapter, Mead details the lives of individual Samoan girls as well as compares them to each other. She talks about their feelings towards sex and society, as well as the influences of the missionaries.

Discussion:
I thought this chapter was interesting first of all because we now begin to see real results of the ethnography Mead performed, as we have gotten through all of the introductory culture. The most intriguing part of the results was the fact that even though no one really talked about sex, it had somewhat ingrained itself into the culture regardless.


Chapter #11:
Summary:
In this chapter, Mead discusses the cases of girls who showed deviant qualities that made them different from the rest of the Samoan girls. She divides them into two cases: unusual and delinquent behavior and then describes each of their cases.

Discussion:
This chapter was interesting on one hand because we can see how outside influence is affecting Samoan children. On the other hand, this chapter was also interesting because of how Mead qualifies delinquent behavior. I find it interesting that behavior is only considered delinquent when it is against your own standards and not necessarily everyone else's.


Chapter #12:
Summary:
In this chapter, Mead discusses the effects of age on the inhabitants of Samoa, both female and male. She describes the males' rise and fall over the course of their lives and how instead the females have a slow, inexorable rise to power that never really ends until they die.

Discussion:
I found this chapter interesting on one hand because of how amused the Samoans were with our ideas of in-laws fighting because of their culture. Additionally, I like how in this chapter we can find a zone in which the women actually have the advantage over the men, albeit one that won't materialize until almost the end of their lives.


Chapter #13:
Summary:
In this chapter, Mead takes the evidence she has gathered from her ethnography and begins to make conclusions. She shows the differences between Samoan culture and ours and how changing our culture in some ways to look like theirs might be positive for us.

Discussion:
I thought this chapter was interesting because I could see some of her points about changing our culture seemed quite valid. Even though they seem sort of strange to me right now, doing things like exposing children to life and death early could save a lot of suffering later.


Chapter #14:
Summary:
In this chapter, Mead further discusses the pressures placed on adolescent girls in our culture. She focuses on the concept of tough choices and how they cause disapproval either way. Because of this, a constant mental strain is kept on the girls.

Discussion:
I liked this chapter because in my own life I can see many of the lose-lose situations I have had to make hard choices towards. While I feel like I did well, at the time the strain was severe and I would have liked some help.


Appendix II:
Summary:
In this appendix Mead describes the scientific methods and limits of the study described in the book. She mentions how small her study group is, as well as how it is admissible because of its size compared to the culture as a whole. She also describes a pseudo-control group as well as how her study is limited.

Discussion:
This chapter is only slightly interesting from a scientific perspective. Although it is good to know the details of her research as well as what parts of the research she has omitted, we get a better idea of how relevant this work is scientifically. It wasn't very interesting to read, however.


Appendix III:
Summary:
In this chapter, Mead describes the islands of Samoa, the villages, and the houses and daily life in brief. She also mentions many of the ways that Samoans have adapted to the influence of the English, as well as which parts of their culture that they still hold on to.

Discussion:
This chapter was interesting because of how well the Samoans have adapted to outside influence. They have been able to use a lot of modern implements without sacrificing their outside culture. I also thought it was interesting that the English didn't attempt to subjugate them, instead creating a sort of symbiosis.


Appendix V:
Summary:
In this appendix, Mead gives further insight into the methods behind her study. She discusses the age groups she studied as well as other factors such as family in those groups. She also provides tables and example handouts she used to gather data.

Discussion:
Again, this chapter really wasn't a very interesting read, but is nonetheless important. The charts and dialog further indicate how detailed Mead was in her study, and further backs up the validity of the study.