Coming of Age In Samoa: A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilisation.

MEAD, Margaret .

Item Number: 90464

New York: William Morrow & Company, 1928.

First edition of Mead’s pioneering work which, upon publication, established her as the most famous anthropologist in the world. Octavo, original cloth, illustrated. Signed by Margaret Mead on the half-title page. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Foreword by Franz Boas. An exceptional example of this landmark work in ethnographic and anthropological thought, we have never seen another signed example.

On publication, Coming of Age in Samoa drew both enormous popular attention and academic interest, establishing Mead as a leading figure in American anthropology and generating a heightened awareness of ethnographic study in the United States. Based on a 9-month study conducted in a small village of 600 people on the island of Ta'ū, the easternmost island of Samoa, Meade used her findings to assert her theory that culture had a leading influence on psycho-sexual development. The work was so ground-breaking in that it was one of the first anthropological texts based on immersive fieldwork as well as one of the first studies to use cross-cultural comparisons to highlight issues within Western society. The study became a leading text in the nature versus nurture debate, as well as in discussions on issues relating to family, adolescence, gender, social norms, and attitudes.