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Male and female: a study of the sexes in a changing world

Book by Margaret Mead · 15 quotes · Children, Men, Body

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Male and female: a study of the sexes in a changing world Quotes

“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.”

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“... some veil between childhood and the present is necessary. If the veil is withdrawn, the artistic imagination sickens and dies, the prophet looks in the mirror with a disillusioned and cynical sneer, the scientist goes fishing.”

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“Living in the modern world, clothed and muffled, forced to convey our sense of our bodies in terms of remote symbols like walking sticks and umbrellas and handbags, it is easy to lose sight of the immediacy of the human body plan.”

WorldHumansBodyEasyTermLosesPlansModernWalkingSightSticksSymbolsHuman BodyModern WorldUmbrellaImmediacyHandbagsWalking Sticks
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“The protection of a ten-year-old girl from her father's advances is a necessary condition of social order, but the protection of the father from temptation is a necessary condition of his continued social adjustment. The protections that are built up in the child against desire for the parent become the essential counterpart to the attitudes in the parent that protect the child.”

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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
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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.”

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“When human beings have been fascinated by the contemplation of their own hearts, the more intricate biological pattern of the female has become a model for the artist, the mystic, and the saint. When mankind turns instead to what can be done, altered, built, invented, in the outer world, all natural properties of men, animals, or metals become handicaps to be altered rather than clues to be followed.”

MenWorldHumansHeartHas BeensDoneBodyArtistTurnsNaturalHuman BeingsAnimalMankindModelsBuiltFemalePropertySaintPatternsContemplationFascinatedMetalsClueMysticAlteredIntricateHandicapsOuter Worlds
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“Each home has been reduced to the bare essentials -- to barer essentials than most primitive people would consider possible. Only one woman's hands to feed the baby, answer the telephone, turn off the gas under the pot that is boiling over, soothe the older child who has broken a toy, and open both doors at once. She is a nutritionist, a child psychologist, an engineer, a production manager, an expert buyer, all in one. Her husband sees her as free to plan her own time, and envies her; she sees him as having regular hours and envies him.”

PeopleChildrenHas BeensHomeHandsTurnsHoursAnswersPlansDoorsBrokenBabyHusbandEssentialsProductionsEnvyManagersExpertsGasPotToysEngineersPrimitiveTelephonesPsychologistOne WomanHouseworkTurn OffBuyersBoilingNutritionistBoiling Over
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“Coming to terms with the rhythms of women's lives means coming to terms with life itself, accepting the imperatives of the body rather than the imperatives of an artificial, man-made, perhaps transcendentally beautiful civilization. Emphasis on the male work-rhythm is an emphasis on infinite possibilities; emphasis on the female rhythms is an emphasis on a defined pattern, on limitation.”

MenMeanMadeBodyBeautifulTermAcceptingPossibilityCivilizationFemaleInfiniteMalesPatternsRhythmDefinedLimitationArtificialEmphasisImperativesInfinite PossibilitiesLife Means
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