Margaret Mead made a world-wide reputation for herself with her book Coming of Age in Samoa. After visiting the island of Samoa and talking to some teenage girls, she came away convinced that the Puritanism of the American sexual code was cultural artifact. In Samoa, by contrast, sex was freely practiced, with little attention to any niceties. Unfortunately, she was wrong about this, as we learned almost a half a century later, when Derek Freeman, who actually spoke Samoan, went to Samoa and interviewed the now grown women who had been interviewed by Margaret Mead many years earlier. He discovered that they had been putting her on. Decency and sexual restraint were as important to Samoans as to Americans.
Unfortunately, she was wrong about this, as we learned almost a half a century later, when Derek Freeman, who actually spoke Samoan, went to Samoa and interviewed the now grown women who had been interviewed by Margaret Mead many years earlier.
Freeman’s case is not so clear-cut. From Skeptic Magazine:
In context, the closing paragraphs of the article are also relevant:
Freeman went to great lengths to convince a broad audience that Mead had been hoaxed. But the “hoaxing” argument was implausible because the interviews that Freeman used did not support his hypothesis. It is also unnecessary, for Mead’s interpretation of Samoa as a sexually permissive society was not due to her alleged “hoaxing” by Fa’apua’a and Fofoa, but rather the data that she collected from Samoan adolescent girls and from other Samoan men and women, her comparison of Samoa and America in the mid-1920s, and the social agenda that she advocated given her own personal background and interests.
James Q. Wilson, Moral Intuitions
Freeman’s case is not so clear-cut. From Skeptic Magazine:
The Trashing of Margaret Mead: How Derek Freeman Fooled Us All on an Alleged Hoax
That’s odd. The Wilson quote in aausch’s post heavily implies that Freeman spoke Samoan and Mead didn’t. But Paul Shankman’s Skeptic article says
Hmm. Wonder who’s right.
In context, the closing paragraphs of the article are also relevant:
http://lesswrong.com/lw/20y/rationality_quotes_april_2010/1v7e
I’d like to buy each of those ladies a beer.