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Margaret Mead

Margaret Mead Quotes

Cultural Anthropologist

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Famous Margaret Mead Quotes

“I used to say to my classes that the ways to get insight are: to study infants; to study animals; to study primitive people; to be psychoanalyzed; to have a religious conversion and get over it; to have a psychotic episode and get over it; or to have a love affair with an old Russian. And I stopped saying that when a little dancer in the front row put up her hand and said, 'Does he have to be old?”

PeopleWayLittlesDoeSaidHandsUsedReligiousAnimalClassStudyFrontsAffairInsightConversionDancerOver ItEpisodesPrimitiveGet OverInfantLove AffairAnthropologyPsychotic
Author:Margaret Mead
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“No society has ever yet been able to handle the temptations of technology to mastery, to waste, to exuberance, to exploration and exploitation... We have to learn to cherish this earth and cherish it as something that's fragile, that's only one, it's all we have... We have to use our scientific knowledge to correct the dangers that have come from science and technology.”

UseAbleEarthTechnologyDangerWasteHandleTemptationCherishExplorationFragileMasteryExploitationStewardshipScience And TechnologyScientific KnowledgeExuberance
Author:Margaret Mead
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“No matter how free divorce, how frequently marriages break up, in most societies there is the assumption of permanent mating, of the idea that the marriage should last as long as both live. . . . No known society has ever invented a form of marriage strong enough to stick that did not contain the 'till death us do part' assumption.”

ShouldLongIdeasMatterEnoughLastsFormStrongKnownMarriageBreakSticksDivorcePermanentAssumptionStrong EnoughMating
Book:Male and female: a study of the sexes in a changing world
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“American society is very like a fish society. . . . Among certain species of fish, the only thing which determines order of dominance is length of time in the fishbowl. The oldest resident picks on the newest resident, and if the newest resident is removed to a new bowl, he, as oldest resident, will pick on the newcomers.”

IfsCertainOrderPicksSpeciesDetermineFishesImmigrationLengthBowlsDominanceResidentsAmerican SocietyNewcomers
Book:And Keep Your Powder Dry: An Anthropologist Looks at America
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“Everyone needs to have access both to grandparents and grandchildren in order to be a full human being.”

NeedsHumansOrderHuman BeingsAccessGrandmotherGrandparentGrandchildrenMy GrandmotherGrandmaGrandpaChildren And GrandchildrenMy GrandchildrenGrandkidsParents And GrandparentsMy GrandmaYour GrandmotherGrandparents DayGrandchildren And GrandparentsGrandparents From GrandchildrenMother And GrandmotherFunny GrandparentGrandmother And GrandchildrenMother GrandmotherFunny GrandmotherBeing A GrandmotherGrand MotherHappy Mothers Day GrandmotherFunny GrandchildrenNana's And GrandchildrenHappy Grandparents DayGrandmas And MomsBeing A GrandmaMothers Day GrandmaBest Grandparents
Book:Blkberry Winter
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“EARTH DAY uses one of humanity's great discoveries, the discovery of anniversaries by which, throughout time, human beings have kept their sorrows and their joys, their victories, their revelations and their obligations alive, for re-celebration and re-dedication another year, another decade, another century, another eon.”

YearsHumansUseEarthJoyHumanityHuman BeingsAliveSadnessCenturyVictorySorrowDiscoveryDecadesObligationRevelationsCelebrationDedicationEarth DayAnother Year
Author:Margaret Mead
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“Samoa culture demonstrates how much the tragic or the easy solution of the Oedipus situation depends upon the inter-relationship between parents and children, and is not created out of whole cloth by the young child's biological impulses.”

ChildrenWholeYoungScienceCultureEasyParentSituationDependsSolutionsImpulseTragicYoung ChildrenChildren And ParentsOedipusSamoa
Book:Male and female: a study of the sexes in a changing world
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“This is a precious possession which we cannot afford to tarnish, but society always is attempting to make the physician into a killer to kill the defective child at birth, to leave the sleeping pills beside the bed of the cancer patient ... It is the duty of society to protect the physicians from such requests.”

ChildrenSleepDutyBirthBedProtectPatientCancerPossessionKillersPhysiciansPillsAttemptingRequestEuthanasiaDefectiveCancer PatientsSleeping PillsPrecious Possessions
Author:Margaret Mead
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“There are unidentified flying objects. That is, there are a hard core of cases-perhaps 20 to 30 percent in different studies-for which there is no explanation. We can only imagine what purpose lies behind the activities of these quiet, harmlessly cruising objects that time and again approach the Earth. The most likely explanation, it seems to me, is that they are simply watching what we are up to”

DifferentHardSeemsEarthLyingPurposeBehindsCasesStudyImagineObjectsActivityQuietApproachPercentCoreFlyingExplanationUfoHard CoreSirius
Author:Margaret Mead
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“The city as a center where, any day in any year, there may be a fresh encounter with a new talent, a keen mind or a gifted specialist-this is essential to the life of a country. To play this role in our lives a city must have a soul-a university, a great art or music school, a cathedral or a great mosque or temple, a great laboratory or scientific center, as well as the libraries and museums and galleries that bring past and present together. A city must be a place where groups of women and men are seeking and developing the highest things they know.”

KnowsMenYearsMindWellsMayArtSoulCountryPlaySchoolTogetherPastCitiesRolesOur LivesGroupsTalentEssentialsHighestMen And WomenLibraryUniversitySeekingDevelopingEncountersTemplesMuseumsGiftedGreat ArtLaboratoryGalleryCathedralsSpecialistsPast And PresentCity LifeMosquesGreat CitiesNew Talent
Book:Margaret Mead, some personal views
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