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| Male and FemaleA Study of the Sexes in a Changing World
Mead, MargaretPublisher:  Dell Publishing Co., Inc., New York, USA Date Written:  01/01/1949
 Year Published:  1949
 Pages:  445pp
 Resource Type:  Book
 
 Mead draws on an account of sex and gender roles among the Pacific peoples to provide insight into the sexual patterns at work in the United States.
 
 Abstract:  Mead starts with an explanation of her own approach to this study of the sexes. She then employs knowledge gained on her many field trips to the South Pacific--to Bali, to Samoa, to New Guinea and the Admiralty Islands--to show what very different roles have been played by men and women in other cultures. She reports societies where sexual intercourse is considered delightful--and to those where it regarded as a necessary eveil; societies where men envy and try to emulate the roles of women--and a society where a woman's place is not in the home; societies where childbearing is hateful--and societies where children are prized possessions.
 
 From this account of sex roles among the Pacific peoples, her book proceeds to a provocative analysis of the sexual patterns at work in the United States.
 
 [From publisher]
 
 
 
 Table of Contents:
 
 Introduction for the Edition of 1967
 Introduction of the Edition of 1962
 
 Part One: Introductory
 I. The Significance of the Questions We Ask
 II. How an Anthropologist Writes
 
 Part Two: The Ways of the Body
 III. First Learnings
 IV. Even-handed, Money-minded, and Womb-envying Patterns
 V. Fathers, Mothers, and Budding Impulses
 VI. Sex and Temperament
 VII. Basic Regularities in Human Sex Development
 
 Part Three: The Problems of Society
 VIII. Rhythm of Work and Play
 IX. Human Fatherhood is a Social Invention
 X. Potency and Receptivity
 XI. Human Reproductivity
 
 Part Four: The Two Sexes in Contemporary America
 XII. Our Complex American Culture
 XIII. Expected Childhood Experience
 XIV. Pre-courtship Behaviour and Adult Sex Demands
 XV. Sex Achievement
 XVI. Each Family in a Home of Its Own
 XVII. Can Marriage be for Life?
 XVIII. To Both Their Own
 
 Notes to Chapters
 Appendix I: Background and Bibliographical Material on the Seven Pacific Island Cultures: Samoa; Manus; Arapesh; Mundugumor; Iatmul; Tchambuli; Bali
 Appendix II: The Ethics of Insight-giving
 Appendix III: Sources and Experience in Our American Culture
 Index of Personal Names
 Index of Subjects
 
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