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Quote by Margaret Mead

“Love is the invention of a few high cultures ... it is cultural artifact. To make love the requirement of a lifelong marriage is exceedingly difficult, and only a few people can achieve it. I don't believe in setting universal standards that a large proportion of people can't reach.”

Quote by Margaret Mead

Author

Margaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist known for her groundbreaking fieldwork and theoretical contributions. She is renowned for her studies of the Samoan, Arapesh, and Australian Aboriginal peoples, which had a profound impact on the fields of anthropology and sociology. more

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“Interest and proficiency in almost any one activity-swimming, boating, fishing, skiing, skating-breed interest in many more. Once someone discovers the delight of mastering one skill, however slightly, he is likely to try out not just one more, but a whole ensemble.”

Trying Whole Sports Interest Activity Skills Delight Boat Just One Fishing Swimming Skating Skiing Ensemble Proficiency

Author:Margaret Mead

“War is only an invention, not a biological necessity.”

Book:The World Ahead: An Anthropologist Anticipates the Future

Source: The World Ahead: An Anthropologist Anticipates the Future

“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.”

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

“Our treatment of both older people and children reflects the value we place on independence and autonomy. We do our best to make our children independent from birth. We leave them all alone in rooms with the lights out and tell them, 'Go to sleep by yourselves.' And the old people we respect most are the ones who will fight for their independence, who would sooner starve to death than ask for help.”

People Children Helping Light Values Fighting Asks Sleep Rooms Birth Our Children Independent Independence Treatment Old People Autonomy Going To Sleep All Alone Older People

Author:Margaret Mead

“The institution of marriage in all societies is a pattern within which the strains put by civilization on males and females alike must be resolved, a pattern within which men must learn, in return for a variety of elaborate rewards, new forms in which sexual spontaneity is still possible, and women must learn to discipline their receptivity to a thousand other considerations.”

Men Stills Form Marriage Return Discipline Civilization Thousand Female Institutions Rewards Males Patterns Variety Consideration Strain Spontaneity Receptivity

Author:Margaret Mead

“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.”

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

“The prophet who fails to present a bearable alternative and yet preaches doom is part of the trap that he postulates. Not only does he picture us caught in a tremendous man-made or God-made trap from which there is no escape, but we must also listen to him day in, day out, describe how the trap is inexorably closing. To such prophecies the human race, as presently bred and educated and situated, is incapable of listening. So some dance and some immolate themselves as human torches; some take drugs and some artists spill their creativity in sets of randomly placed dots on a white ground.”

Men Humans Doe Made Artist White Race Creativity Failing Listening Drug Caught Educated Alternatives Human Race Prophet Traps Incapable Prophecy Doom Closing Spills Dots Torches Bearable

Author:Margaret Mead

“The negative cautions of science are never popular. If the experimentalist would not commit himself, the social philosopher, the preacher, and the pedagogue tried the harder to give a short-cut answer.”

Ifs Giving Science Social Answers Cutting Negative Scientist Harder Philosopher Commit Preacher Caution Short Cuts

Book:Coming of Age in Samoa

Source: Coming of Age in Samoa

“If I were to be taken hostage, I would not plead for release nor would I want my government to be blackmailed. I think certain government officials, industrialists and celebrated persons should make it clear they are prepared to be sacrificed if taken hostage. If that were done, what gain would there be for terrorists in taking hostages?”

Ifs Thinking Want Should Persons Done Government Certain Taken Clear Gains Prepared Terrorism Terrorist Release Officials Hostage Government Officials

Author:Margaret Mead

“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?”

Men Needs Wells Has Beens Use Young Language Sex Women Term Watches Gains Including Young Women Vulgar Men Women Liberated Explicit

Author:Margaret Mead