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Margaret Mead

Margaret Mead Quotes

Cultural Anthropologist

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Famous Margaret Mead Quotes

“where families suffer from disasters that are preventable, this is a measure of a whole nation's neglect. A society imperils its own future when, out of negligence or contempt, it overlooks the need of children to be reared in a family ... or when, in the midst of plenty, some families cannot give their children adequate food and shelter, safe activity and rest, and an opportunity to grow into full adulthood as people who can care for and cherish other human beings like themselves.”

PeopleNeedsGivingHumansChildrenWholeCareSufferingOpportunityNationsGrowsHuman BeingsFamilySocietyActivitySafeDisasterPlentyMidstNeglectCherishContemptShelterAdulthoodAdequateNegligence
Author:Margaret Mead
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“laughter, that distinctively human emotion, laughter which springs from trust in the other, from willingness to put oneself momentarily in the other's place, even at one's own expense, is the special emotional basis of democratic procedures, just as pride is the emotion of an aristocracy, shame of a crowd that rules, and fear of a police state.”

HumansStatesEmotionDemocracySpecialEmotionalPrideSpringLaughterBasesPoliceShameDemocraticOneselfCrowdsExpensesWillingnessProceduresAristocracyPolice StateHuman Emotions
Author:Margaret Mead
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“Just as the difference in height between males is no longer a realistic issue, now that lawsuits have been substituted for hand-to-hand encounters, so the difference in strength between men and women is no longer worth elaboration in cultural institutions.”

MenHas BeensHandsDifferencesIssuesMen And WomenInstitutionsMalesDiscriminationHeightEncountersRealisticLawsuit
Book:Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies
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“to the extent that either sex is disadvantaged, the whole culture is poorer, and the sex that, superficially, inherits the earth, inherits only a very partial legacy. The more whole the culture, the more whole each member, each man, each woman, each child will be.”

MenChildrenWholeEarthCultureSexMembersEqualityLegacyDisadvantaged
Book:Male and female: a study of the sexes in a changing world
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“Those social behaviors which automatically preclude the building of a democratic world must go - every social limitation of human beings in terms of heredity, whether it be of race, or sex, or class. Every social institution which teaches human beings to cringe to those above and step on those below must be replaced by institutions which teach people to look each other straight in the face.”

PeopleWorldHumansLooksFacesSocialSexTermHuman BeingsRaceStepsClassTeachBuildingBehaviorInstitutionsDemocraticEqualityLimitationReplacedCringeHereditySocial InstitutionsSocial Behavior
Book:And Keep Your Powder Dry: An Anthropologist Looks at America
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“Even very recently, the elders could say: 'You know, I have been young and you never have been old.' But today's young people can reply: 'You never have been young in the world I am young in, and you never can be.' ... the older generation will never see repeated in the lives of young people their own unprecedented experience of sequentially emerging change. This break between generations is wholly new: it is planetary and universal.”

PeopleKnowsWorldHas BeensTodayYoungBreakGenerationsUniversalEldersEmergingUnprecedentedOlder Generation
Author:Margaret Mead
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“Mourning has become unfashionable in the United States. The bereaved are supposed to pull themselves together as quickly as possible and to reweave the torn fabric of life. ... we do not allow ... for the weeks and months during which a loss is realized - a beautiful word that suggests the transmutation of the strange into something that is one's own.”

StatesTogetherBeautifulLossUnitedGriefUnited StatesWeekStrangeMonthsMourningFabricTornBeautiful WordsTransmutationFabric Of Life
Book:A Way of Seeing
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“Everybody's suffering is mine but not everybody's murdering ... I do not distinguish for one moment whether my child is in danger or a child in central Asia. But I will not accept responsibility for what other people do because I happen to belong to that nation or that race or that religion. I do not believe in guilt by association.”

PeopleBelieveChildrenMomentsHappensSufferingNationsRaceResponsibilityAcceptingDangerMinesGuiltMy ChildrenAssociationAsiaCentral Asia
Author:Margaret Mead
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“Every act of motherhood contains a dual intent, as the mother holds the child close and prepares it to move way from her, as she supports the child and stands it firmly on its own feet, and as she guards it against danger and sends it out across the yard, down by the stream, and across the traffic-crowded highway. Unless a mother can do both - gather her child close and turn her child out toward the world - she will fail in her purpose.”

WorldWayChildrenMovingMotherPurposeTurnsCan DoSupportFailingFeetDangerMotherhoodStreamsTrafficYardsHighwaysCrowded
Author:Margaret Mead
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“I think the important thing about sisters is that they share the same minute, familiar life-style, the same little sets of rules. Therefore they can keep house with each other late in life, because they share the same bunch of housewifely prejudices. The important thing about women today is, as they get older, they still keep house. It's one reason they don't die, but men die when they retire. Women just polish the teacups.”

ThinkingMenLittlesStillsImportantReasonTodayDiesHouseShareMinutesStyleLatePrejudiceImportant ThingsBunchFamiliarRetiringPolishLife Style
Author:Margaret Mead
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“Sisters, while they are growing up, tend to be very rivalrous and as young mothers they are given to continual rivalrous comparisons of their several children. But once the children grow older, sisters draw closer together and often, in old age, they become each other's chosen and most happy companions. In addition to their shared memories of childhood and of their relationship to each other's children, they share memories of the same home, the same homemaking style, and the same small prejudices about housekeeping that carry the echoes of their mother's voice.”

ChildrenHomeAgeTogetherYoungMotherGivenGrowsVoiceMemoriesGrowing UpGrowingShareChildhoodStyleDrawsPrejudiceChosenOld AgeComparisonCompanionEchoesChildhood MemoriesHousekeepingOlder SisterYoung MotherHomemaking
Author:Margaret Mead
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“Our first and most pressing problem is how to do away with warfare as a method of solving conflicts between national groups or between groups within a society who have different views about how the society is to be run. If you look back, you will see that warfare was an invention, just as ways of handling government or taxes are inventions. You will see, too, that once people use an invention they go on using it until they find another which they think is superior.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWayFirstsLooksDifferentWarUseProblemGovernmentRunningViewsGroupsGoes OnConflictTaxesMethodInventionSuperiorsWarfareDifferent Views
Book:PEOPLE AND PLACES
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