Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

II. Perspectives
allegations of scientific misconduct in
The
Stanford Prison experiment, and the
the
concerns about Milgram’s
methodological
experiments, are part of a big
obedience
of the reliability of psychology’s
re-evaluation
findings. We explore more of
best-known
in III.6. It may come to be known as the
this
scientific controversy of the 2010s, but
biggest
at this scale in a discipline is
self-questioning
unprecedented. As II.2 below explains,
hardly
about a quarter of a century a debate ragedin
for
that spilled beyond academia to
anthropology
Mead was the most famous
Margaret
of the 20th century. Indeed,
anthropologist
the time of her death in 1978 she had
by
synonymous with the field of cultural
become
She was the “Mother to the
anthropology.
according to Time magazine (1969), and
World”
of the Presidential Medal of Freedom,
recipient
highest civilian honour in the United
the
Taking visible positions in society and
States.
civil rights, gender equality and
championing
justice, she went beyond the call
environmental
academic duty to become a public icon. Mead
of
the standards for what it means to be a public
set
and was widely considered as
anthropologist
of the greats of the discipline already during
one
lifetime. Then there was controversy, as
her
it was major news in 1983, ve years after her
…
when Derek Freeman, a New Zealand-born
death,
published Margaret Mead and Samoa:
anthropologist,
Making and Unmaking of an Anthropological
The
a slashing attack criticizing Mead’s near-iconic
Myth,
as deeply awed if not deliberately distorted
study
promote ideas that had as much to do with her own
to
on sex and with American culture of the 1920s
views
the publication of Freeman’s book, an
Before
appeared on the front page of the New
article
taking an interest in the controversies of
media
narrow academic field. The episode became
a
divisive and exposed ideological fault
deeply
in academic anthropology as well as in
lines
Could it be that the power of culture
society.
shape human behaviour had been hugely
to
Figure 8.2 Margaret Mead dressed in traditional clothing during
attack on Mead’s anthropology also
Freeman’s
the liberalism and feminism of her
threatened
work. To understand why, we need a basic
civic
of the conflicting knowledge
understanding
that were made. Mead’s Coming of Age
claims
Samoa (1928) was a key development in the
in
debate. It claimed that while
nature-nurture
puberty was universal, the turmoil
biological
adolescence often said to accompany it was
of
product of culture. Mead offered a range
a
evidence for this, but there was one major
of
for many, and especially for Freeman.
concern
described Samoa as a sexually liberal
Mead
and claimed that this made puberty
culture
harmonious for young Samoans as
more
to their rebellious American peers.
compared
8
overstated for half acentury?
attract intense public interest foryears.
II.2 Of heroines and heretics
her time in Samoa
explained by anthropologist Paul Shankman:
as with adolescence in Polynesia.
(Shankman 2009)
York Times anticipating it, which showed mass
Freeman challenged this description of Samoan
218