Letters from the Field, 1925-1975 - Paperback

by Margaret Mead (Author)

Beginning in 1925, when at twenty-three she embarked on her first field work in Samoa, Mead sent family and friends these letters from the field "to make a little more real for them" the exotic worlds that absorbed her.

In this complement to her bestselling memoir Blackberry Winter, Mead has assembled selected letters she wrote from Samoa in 1925-26; from Peré Village, Manus, in the Admiralty Islands, in 1928-29; from the Arapesh, Mundugumor, and Tchambuli, New Guinea, in 1932-33; from Bali and the Iatmul, New Guinea, in 1936-39; from Manus again in 1953; and during brief visits in the sixties and seventies to Manus, several new Guinea sites, and Montserrat in the West Indies.

Enhanced by more than 100 photographs, these intelligent, vivid, frequently funny and sometimes poetic letters help us share with Mead "the unique, but also cumulative, experience of immersing oneself in the on-going life of another people, . . .attempting to understand mentally and physically this other version of reality."

What did it truly mean to be a pioneering woman in science, living for decades among the most remote cultures of the South Pacific?

• A Pioneer's Journey: From her first solo fieldwork in Samoa at age twenty-three to her final visits in the 1970s, witness the personal and intellectual evolution of one of the 20th century's most important thinkers.
• Groundbreaking Ethnography: Go beyond formal studies and see the raw, unfiltered process of discovery through Mead's candid, vivid, and often funny observations on everything from sacred rituals to the challenges of daily life.
• South Pacific Cultures: Travel to Samoa, Bali, and the remote villages of New Guinea--including the Manus, Arapesh, and Mundugumor--through the eyes of an anthropologist learning to see the world anew.
• A Visual Record: Experience these otherwise lost worlds through more than 100 photographs, many taken by Mead and her colleagues, that enhance and illuminate her intimate correspondence.

Back Jacket

Margaret Mead was famous for keeping in touch with a wide circle of friends as we see in this collection of wonderfully revealing correspondence from the field. Written over a period of half a century, these letters to friends, family, and colleagues detail her first fieldwork in Samoa and go on to record her now famous anthropological endeavors in mainland New Guinea, the Admiralty Islands, and Bali. Enhanced by photographs, these intelligent, vivid, frequently funny, and often poetic letters tell us much about Mead's passion for and understanding of preliterate cultures. But they are equally valuable as a fundamental text on the science -- and art -- of anthropology. This edition, prepared for the centennial of Mead's birth, features introductions by Jan Morris and Mead's daughter. Mary Catherine Bateson.