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Margaret Mead

Margaret Mead Quotes

Cultural Anthropologist

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Famous Margaret Mead Quotes

“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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“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.”

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Author:Margaret Mead
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“I have been accused of having believed when I wrote Sex and Temperament that there are no sex differences... This, many readers felt, was too much. It was too pretty. I must have found what I was looking for. But this misconception comes from a lack of understanding of what anthropology means, of the open-mindedness with which one must look and listen, record in astonishment and wonder, that which one would not have been able to guess.”

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Author:Margaret Mead
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“The suffering of either sex - of the male who is unable, because of the way in which he was reared, to take the strong initiating or patriarchal role that is still demanded of him, or of the female who has been given too much freedom of movement as a child to stay placidly within the house as an adult - this suffering, this discrepancy, this sense of failure in an enjoined role, is the point of leverage for social change.”

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Author:Margaret Mead
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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
Book:Male and female: a study of the sexes in a changing world
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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
Book:Male and female: a study of the sexes in a changing world
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“Many women, particularly young women, have claimed the right to use the most explicit sex terms, including extremely vulgar ones, in public as well as private. But it is men, far more than women, who have been liberated by this change. For now that women use these terms, men no longer need to watch their own language in the presence of women. But is this a gain for women?”

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Author:Margaret Mead
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