Microblog on Coming of Age in Samoa

Chapter 1

---

Comments
Chris Kam
John Janosko

Reference Information
Coming of Age in Samoa
Margaret Mead

Summary

Margaret Mead

This first chapter sets up the rest of the ethnography. It presents to us the work done on the study of adolescence in society. The rebellion and the changes exhibited by teenagers. Margaret Mead challenges these findings stating that the studies conducted on the subjects are not controlled. Many factors go into determining the behavior of an adolescent. She continues to argue that the only issue is not the controlled variables but the variables themselves, in this case, the environment established by society. Mead presents the dilemma that all studies are on American teenagers raised in an American society with an American way of thinking. She proposes the question of what would happen if we take the American society out of the picture and instead, conduct studies on adolescence in a small, secluded, culturally different setting. The location: Samoa. In describing the cultural differences between both civilizations (America and Samoa), Mead starts on her journey in Samoa to uncover the truth behind the complexity of humans. It becomes a classic question of nature vs. nurture.

Discussion
Having read part of this book already in an anthropology class, I feel I have a good understanding of where this book is heading. It is an argument of nature vs. nurture in which anthropologist still argue about to this day. The question becomes: Is the development of the human genetically encoded and imprinted on the brain, or is it the outside environment surroundings, and culture impact heavily on the development of man. I see this book as helping us understand, not in an anthropological way, but in how to study humans to better suit their needs for human-computer interaction. How culture, religion, society play a role in developing systems meant to heavily interact with people. Examples of this that come to mind are website design. Though there are many ways and templates for website design, we have it ingrained in our heads how the basic navigation and menus should appear. But what about  cultures in which people read right-to-left or from up-down. Should sites be completely reversed or customized for them? It is in this example that I see how this relates to our feild of science of human-computer interaction.