Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id JAA19723 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 18 Jul 2000 09:41:02 +0100 Message-ID: <A4400389479FD3118C9400508B0FF230040E3F@DELTA> From: "Gatherer, D. (Derek)" <D.Gatherer@organon.nhe.akzonobel.nl> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: memes and sexuality Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 10:37:50 +0200 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
This thread seems to be giving the impression that it is a straight Freeman
vs. Mead debate. In fact Mead was independently criticised by Martin Orans,
Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at UC Riverside in his 1983 book "Not
Even Wrong: Margaret Mead, Derek Freeman, and the Samoans" (originally
Harvard University Press, now Chandler and Sharp - ISBN: 0883165643).
Orans, like Freeman, had done his own extensive field work in Samoa, and had
come independently to the conclusion that Mead was mistaken. Orans also
went over Mead's original notes. Even as early as 1957, Lowell Holmes had
expressed some reservations in his thesis "The Restudy of Manu'an Culture".
This was published in book form in 1987 as "The Quest for the Real Samoa".
Paul Shankman in "The History of Samoan Sexual Conduct and the Mead Freeman
Controversy" American Anthropologist 1996:563, takes a middle view, pointing
out flaws in both Mead's and Freeman's work.
One would still have to say that the weight of reasoned documentary evidence
would seem to be against Mead, although it is not necessary to accept
_everything_ that Freeman says. Mead was, like her mentor Boas, a 'cultural
determinist' and therefore a natual addition to the pantheon of memetic
saints. But we ought not to refuse to listen to her critics, especially
when there are so many of them and they have such a weight of contrary
evidence.
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