Teaching
The Problems With Coming of Age
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Unit 2
Adolescence as a Social Category
In this unit (to accompany SAPIENS podcast S6E1), students will examine the idea of adolescence as a focus of anthropological research and investigate the creation of the social category of adolescence. Students will explore Margaret Mead’s ideas and contentions about adolescence that resulted from her work in American Samoa.
Learning Objectives
- Investigate the emergence of adolescence as a social category in the 20th century and discuss how anthropologists have studied it.
- Assess Margaret Mead’s ideas about adolescence.
Sapiens articles
Margaret Mead Imagined Different Futures
For those anxious about the state of the world, Mead’s celebrated work shows how anthropology can help guide alternative futures.
What Industrial Societies Get Wrong About Childhood
The industrial world’s practice of placing children in classes of similar ages with an adult teacher is not the only way to learn—and it might not be the most effective.
Keywords
View All in Children
![Amid a crowd, a woman with dark auburn hair and a black jacket embraces a child who faces away from the camera and wears a jacket with blue cartoon monkeys on it.]()
![A narrow, paved trail cuts through a grassy field and ends at a small white building in the distance that has a cross on its roof.]()
![Two side-by-side graphics depict skulls, one facing forward and the other in profile. Both images are outlined in blue and have sections shaded in yellow. The profile image has three red lines spanning across it in two V shapes.]()
![A large, tan cardboard box sits on a shelf with a label that reads “C2” below it. On two small pieces of black tape on the box’s front side, white letters read “Infant” and “Name Once Known.”]()
![A smiling girl with shoulder-length brown hair in a black T-shirt and gray leggings sits on a wooden table in a grassy park and hugs a stuffed animal wrapped in a pink and white blanket.]()
![A close-up image features two spiders on a stick held horizontally in the hands of a child whose face appears slightly blurred in the background.]()
Inside Russia’s Campaign to Steal and Indoctrinate Ukrainian Children
An anthropologist investigates an insidious side of Russia’s genocide against Ukrainians meant to shatter families: snatching children and occupying their minds.
Buried in the Shadows, Ireland’s Unconsecrated Dead
A visual anthropologist reflects on the history of cillíní, unmarked and mostly hidden burial sites in Ireland where loved ones continue to care for the dead.
Learning From Snapshots of Lost Fossils
Not all fossil discoveries happen in the field. In museum archives, researchers found photos of remains from Paleolithic children who had belonged to a group of early Homo sapiens in Eurasia.
Infant, Name Once Known
A poet-anthropologist of the Chickasaw Nation honors infant remains historically used in teaching collections at the University of Illinois.
Raising My Children in an Ableist World
In a new book, an anthropologist and father of three, including a daughter with Down syndrome, reflects on the pressures of parenting.
What Spider Games Say About Arachnophobia
Many people around the world fear spiders. But in the Philippines, the tradition of spider wrestling often brings people and arachnids in close proximity.
View All in Education
![A person wearing a black robe crouches beside a white building to tend to a bed of pea plants.]()
![A man with long, dark hair tied in a braid holds up a small child to a mirror, which reflects the child’s pensive face.]()
![A white cartoon speech bubble on a red background is wrapped in barbed wire.]()
![A serene lake is surrounded by a dense forest of evergreen trees. The calm, blue water reflects the clear sky above.]()
![In the foreground, four people wear sombreros and ride on horseback. Three of them carry U.S. and Mexican flags while looking up and gesturing toward a helicopter overhead. A crowd of people walk in front of them.]()
![An adult with short hair, a mustache, and glasses, and two young people with long hair held by barrettes—one holding a pen—sit on the floor around a large piece of construction paper, markers, and a camera.]()
People Are Not Peas—Why Genetics Education Needs an Overhaul
The decades out-of-date genetics taught in most U.S. schools stokes misconceptions about race and human diversity. A biological anthropologist calls for change.
Finding Our Way Forward—by Remembering
In a personal essay, a mixed-race and Native anthropologist draws strength from his ancestors.
Speaking Truth to Israel Requires More Than Academic Freedom
Educators and students critical of Israel’s war on Gaza face censorship, harassment, and dismissal. An anthropologist who researches coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians argues such critics need more than free speech protections.
On the Tracks to Translating Indigenous Knowledge
A team of researchers will journey by railway to Lac Seul First Nation in Canada to better understand alternative ways of seeing the world.
I Was Penalized for Learning a Language at Home
A researcher explains why the Fulbright-Hays fellowship should change its rules that have kept native and heritage speakers from working where their languages are spoken.
Through Film, Discovering Hope in the Face of Environmental Destruction
In the midst of acute eco-anxiety, can community-based filmmaking help young people imagine a different future?
View All in Identity
![A photo shows the back of a person in a dark suitcoat standing at a podium and speaking to a large, captive, seated audience. Most onlookers wear red MAGA hats and Trump T-shirts.]()
![A man with long, dark hair tied in a braid holds up a small child to a mirror, which reflects the child’s pensive face.]()
![Amid a rocky landscape, a grove of gnarled olive trees stands under a nearly cloudless blue sky.]()
![A person wearing a long-sleeved black maxi dress and a red headscarf holding a green umbrella walks on a public street with a silver truck and several people in black hats, helmets, and khaki uniforms in the background.]()
![On the left, smoke billows out from the top of several large smokestacks on a long sandy shore that a few people are walking along. On the right, over dark blue water, an orange sunset illuminates a pier in the distance.]()
![A large, brown sculpture depicts a cluster of people looking outward, one cradling a child in their arms. A village and blue sky are visible in a distant horizon.]()
Five Reasons Why Trump Won Again
In an effort to address toxic polarization in the U.S., an anthropologist of the “Trumpiverse” explains MAGA supporters’ thinking in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
Finding Our Way Forward—by Remembering
In a personal essay, a mixed-race and Native anthropologist draws strength from his ancestors.
Griko’s Poetic Whisper
In two poems, an anthropologist speaks to the timelessness and constant change of the minority language Griko in the Italian landscape.
08.03.2019
A poet-anthropologist from India recalls a checkpoint encounter in Sri Lanka, just months after the Easter Sunday bombings.
Between the Lines
A poet-anthropologist in Israel looks to his students and their surroundings, calling for “seekers of peace” to create lifelines across social and geopolitical divides.
Poems of Witness and Possibility: Inside Zones of Conflict
Anthropological poems from around the globe speak to people’s creative will, resistance, and resilience—and the significance of our shared humanity.
Glossary
Adolescence
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The phase of biological and social growth during which the transition from childhood to adulthood occurs, typically from age 10 through the early 20s.
Coming of Age in Samoa
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A 1928 book written by American anthropologist Margaret Mead that focuses on her research on adolescence in American Samoan culture.
Nature Versus Nurture
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A debate involving the extent to which particular aspects of behavior are a direct result of biology (sometimes referred to as genetic predisposition) or learned influences.
Sexuality
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The sociocultural identities associated with erotic thoughts and practices and the complex experiences humans have regarding their bodies and perceptions of gender.
Professor Talking Points
- Adolescence has only been identified as a stage of development separate from childhood since the late 19th/early 20th century. Prior to this time, and in most cultural contexts, people were categorized as either children or adults. Explain how anthropologists have approached the study of adolescence as a social category and the ways in which the anthropological study of adolescence has changed over the past 100 years.
- The era in which Mead came of age was a time of significant change for women and women’s rights in the United States and elsewhere. Women in the United States gained the right to vote in 1920, when Mead was 19 years old. Despite these changes, American women were still operating within a political, economic, and social world dominated by men. Lead students in a discussion about how the events and trends of the time may have impacted Mead’s choices and area of study.
- Mead studied under the tutelage of anthropologist Franz Boas and believed that the environment and culture in which a person grows up influences their personality. Present students with this statement: Personality is never a result of nature; it is only from nurture, which refers to the environment and culture surrounding a person’s upbringing. Discuss with students how this claim can be affirmed or negated.
- Mead spent a significant amount of time in American Samoa, engaging in its culture and practices. She interviewed adolescent girls as part of her research and wrote about her findings in her well-known book Coming of Age in Samoa. Ask students to compare the observations she made about adolescence in American Samoa with the stresses of adolescence they see or have experienced in the United States today.
- Mead said, “Human nature is almost unbelievably malleable, responding accurately and contrastingly to contrasting cultural conditions.” Give examples of how cultural conditions mold human nature and influence personalities. Discuss with students the examples Mead saw in her research that may have influenced her views and led to her conclusions about the malleability of human nature. Ask students to discuss if they believe this statement is true about all stages of life.
Academic Articles
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Freeman, Derek. 2000. “Margaret Mead’s Coming of Age in Samoa and Boasian Culturalism.” Politics and the Life Sciences 19 (1): 101–103.
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Sanday, Peggy Reeves. 1980. “Margaret Mead’s View of Sex Roles in Her Own and Other Societies.” American Anthropologist 82 (2): 340–348.
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Zorbaugh, Harvey W., and L. Virgil Payne. 1935. “Adolescence: Psychosis or Social Adjustment?” Journal of Educational Sociology 8 (6): 371–377.
Student Discussion Questions
- Why should adolescence be considered a cultural category of interest in terms of anthropological study?
- Why have few anthropological studies focused on adolescence?
- What are the major contributions Mead made to the anthropological study of adolescence?
- What elements of biological and emotional development set adolescence apart as a focus of anthropological study?
Activities
- The nature versus nurture debate centers on whether it is genetically inherited traits or environmental and cultural influences that are more impactful in the development of personality. Take a side (nature or nurture) and create a case consisting of a claim supported by three points. Then indicate whether Mead would agree or disagree with your case and why.
- In a two-page essay, outline Mead’s assumptions, observations, and conclusions about adolescent girls based on her time in American Samoa.
- G. Stanley Hall was one of the first psychologists to study and identify adolescence as a physiological stage. He contended that adolescent behavior was related to physiological changes. He described the turbulence of the stage as Sturm und Drang (storm and stress), which ends with the dawn of adulthood. Create a table or other graphic to compare this view with that of Mead.
Additional Resources
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Article: Gary Schwartz and Don Merten’s “The Language of Adolescence: An Anthropological Approach to the Youth Culture”
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Article: Meredith W. Reiches’ “Adolescence as a Biocultural Life History Transition”
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Article: Suet Lin Hung and Kwok Kin Fung’s “Social Constructionist View of Adolescence”
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Book: Margaret Mead’s Coming of Age in Samoa
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Video: Adriana Galván’s The Adolescent Brain: A Thriving Look
Unit By
Aimee L. Richards, Freedom Learning Group
Teaching
The Problems With Coming of Age
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Unit 3
Margaret Mead’s Ethnographic Work in Samoa
