Coming of Age

Available for over a year

Farrah Jarral concludes the first week of her series on the history of anthropology by looking at the remarkable legacy of Margaret Mead. Farrah looks at how Mead's first research trip to the South Pacific set a new template for how anthropological learning could be used in modern societies, upending how Americans thought about child-rearing and breastfeeding. And she argues that Mead's research in her second major research expedition changed forever notions of fixed gender identities. Speaking to Margaret Mead's daughter, the anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson, and to an anthropologist who wrote a book called 'Margaret Mead Made Me Gay', Farrah explores the extraordinary legacy of this anthropological pioneer. Producer: Giles Edwards.