In six pages this research paper summarizes this landmark anthropological research conducted in the 1920s by Margaret Mead. There are no other sources listed.
Name of Research Paper File: D0_khmdsomo.rtf
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expedition to Somoa, which was the first field work of her long and distinguished career. Somoa is a South Sea island about thirteen degrees from the Equator, which is
"inhabited by a brown Polynesian people" (Mead 8). The original research was conducted in 1926 when Mead was in her twenties. Mead concentrated her research focus on the girls of
the Somoan community in which she lived, spending the greater part of her time with these girls (Mead 9). She freely admits that she spent more time "in the games
of children than in the councils of their elders" (9). In order to comprehend the nuances of this culture, Mead learned to speak their language. She ate their foot, sat
barefoot and cross-legged on the "pebbly floor" (9). In short, she did everything possible to minimize the differences between herself and the rest of the Somoan female community who lived
among three little villages that rested on the coast of the island of Tau in the Manua Archipelago (90. Social structure A Somoan village is consists of roughly thirty
to forty households, each of which is overseen by a headman who is referred to as a "matai" (Mead 29). These headmen are either chiefs or "talking chiefs," who are
the orators, spokesmen and ambassadors of chiefs (Mead 29). In the formal village assembly, each "matai" has his place and represents and is responsible for the member of his
household. These "households" encompass all the individuals who live for any length of time under the authority of a common matai (Mead 29). Composition of a household can vary
from just the biological family to larger households that contain people related by blood, marriage, or adoption to either side of the family (Mead 29). Social standing plays a