Coming of Age in Samoa

Coming of Age in Samoa, Margaret Mead’s psychological study of youth in a primitive society, is today recognized as a scientific classic. However, when first published, as the late Dr. Mead pointed out in her preface, it was “the first piece of work by a serious professional anthropologist written for the educated layman in which all the paraphernalia of scholarship designed to convince one’s professional colleagues and confuse the laity was deliberately laid aside.