Margaret Mead: Character and Personality Studies

Paper Summary:

This paper first outlines Margaret Mead's understanding of the general development, approaches, and use of national character study; then, examines her primary works on America. Finally, the paper points to her more loosely defined American character writings of post-World War II.

From the Paper:

"As a pioneer of national character study, Margaret Mead's career continually returned to the understanding of American culture. Combining humanitarianism and social activism with her anthropological investigation she strove to positively affect the experiences of those at home. In her autobiography, written six years before her death, she explains: "I have spent most of my life studying the lives of other peoples, faraway peoples, so that Americans might better understand themselves." Part of this life project became the development of- and involvement with a social scientific practice capable of a broad knowledge of culture. With specific emphasis on American culture, her efforts are most substantially evident in And Keep Your Powder Dry as well as with in Male and Female. Many of her other over 1300 publications, often in such popular forms as periodicals, pamphlets, newspapers (and even radio and television broadcasts), are oriented toward specific attributes of American character and their social ramifications."

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