ANTHROPOLOGISTS IN SEARCH OF A CULTURE:

MARGARET MEAD, DEREK FREEMAN AND ALL THE REST OF US

Eleanor Leacock
The City College,
City University of New York

ABSTRACT
This compelling analysis of the implications of the "Mead-
Freeman" debate is the last work by Eleanor Leacock, who died in
Samoa in 1987. According to Leacock, one of the principal effects
of Freeman's attack on Mead's work was to focus attention upon his
support for biological determinism. In addition, his findings
about Samoa ignored the culture changes that had taken place in
Samoa through time. Freeman can also be faulted for failing to
note the contemporary problems of Samoa as a small, Third World
island nation.
On the other hand, Leacock reflects on the possibility that
even if Mead's research reinforced an infantile image of Samoans
as "simple, happy natives," Freeman's "balanced" emphasis on
aggression and violence has potentially negative effects for
Samoan communities throughout the world. Hence, both Mead and
Freeman separated Samoan culture from Samoan history.
Leacock thus demonstrates vividly that the lack of a
historically based, advocacy-oriented anthropology produces
stereotyped images. This advocacy is the key to forging access to
the "insider" perspective, for it assumes that it is undertaken in
active collaboration with those whom the researcher is studying.
Leacock's paper thus points the way to a more constructuve and
collaborative ethnography (Abstract written by Angela Gilliam).

The Mead/Freeman support for a dissertation

Controversy, as it has come to
be called, certainly has its
bizarre aspects. Just how many
papers can outsiders write
about the culture of one small
island nation?1 One can indeed
take a cynical view of the
entire affair, and see the
creation of an attention
attracting issue as simply
serving the demands of the
academic market place.
Dealing with a recognized
"issue" makes it easier to
publish a paper and thereby
add to one's vita, to have a
symposium accepted, to obtain
a research grant, or to win
topic. In my own case, it
enabled me to put on my
applied anthropology hat—
for I am no Pacific expert—
and conduct research on youth
problems in Samoa,2 visit the
University of the South
Pacific in Fiji as well, and
in the process learn first
hand about a politically
important and exciting part of
the world.
However, there is the other
side to the deluge of papers
that criticized Freeman's
book, Margaret Mead and Samoa.
The Making and Unmaking of an
Anthropological Mvth. As
that criticized Freeman's must place greater emphasis on
book, Margaret Mead and Samoa. biological factors in human
The Making and Unmaking of an behavior, can only be read as
Anthropological Mvth. As a plug for biological
Lenore Foerstel's paper has determinism.
illustrated so well, the Support for b i o l o g i c a l
issues raised by Freeman's determinism was clearly the
book are deeply ideological. message picked up by the New
In the context of today's York Times in i t s
reactionary climate, unprecedented front page
Freeman's scathing attack on a announcement of an as yet
leading female scholar, and unpublished anthropology
his v i t r i o l i c criticism of book. In the Times story of
Franz Boas as a "cultural January 31, 1983, the
determinist" who seriously ethologist Nikolaus Tinbergen
neglected biology cannot fail commends Freeman's book as "a
to have racist implications. masterpiece of modern
To be sure, in the closing scientific anthropology,-* and
passage to his book, Freeman the zoologist Ernst Mayr
(1983a:302) avers that he i s states that the book "is not:
simply asking for a synthesis only a contribution to
that recognizes "the radical cultural anthropology, but i t
importance of the genetic and will also have a major iifipact
exogenetic and t h e i r on psychology and other
interaction," and he disclaims aspects of hainan biology."
"extreme biological Significantly, statements
determinism" as unscientific. about the scientific,
However, in the context of his achievements of the book thafc
portrayal of Boas as an grace i t s dust cover' are hy;
"extreme" cultural Tinbergen, Mayr and two
determinist, his emphasis on physical anthropologists,
the need for a new synthesis rather than by* scholars who
of biology and culture calls are knowledgeable ajsoiit Samoa
his seemingly balanced or the Pacific, or even about
position into question. cultural anthropology. The
Freeman deals with Boas in Times writer aptly states,
considerable detail, yet from "Defenders of Miss Mead say
his treatment one would not that many scholars who have
suspect that i t i s precisely lined up behind Professor
the Boasian synthesis of Freeman are longtime champions
biology and culture that laid of biological determinism, a
the foundation for the "new doctrine that has gained
physical anthropology" which considerable strength and
deals with the interaction of credence within the academic
these variables both in the community during the last
course of human evolution and decade (McDowell 1983:C21). It
in relation to contemporary was fitting, then, for
problems concerning f e r t i l i t y , anthropologists to launch a
population and health. I t i s strong and c o n s i s t e n t
in this light that Freeman's counterattack against
insistence that i f i t i s to be Freeman's book, although this
truly scientific, anthropology of course was no longer front
page news. criticism of Mead made by
Holmes, who restudied Ta'u,
THE CRITIQUE OF FREEMAN the village in which Mead has
worked, but never mentions
Freeman's argument was b l u n t Holmes' overall evaluation of
t h a t Mead's study of Samoa was her study as generally sound
designed t o provide Boas with (Holmes 1983; 1987) .
a "negative i n s t a n c e " — a case Above a l l , Freeman was
where t h e b i o l o g i c a l changes criticized for his harsh one-
of adolescence were not sided and insulting
accompanied by the stress description of Samoan culture.
familiar to the West—thereby In his view "intense
demonstrating the primacy of competitiveness" pervades all
cultural factors in social aspects of Samoan life, and
behavior; that the Samoans live in an authority
inexperienced and biased Mead system so stressful that i t
found what she was supposed "regularly result(s) in
to; but that in fact psychological disturbances
adolescence in Samoa is very ranging from compulsive
stressful, and Samoan culture behaviors and musu states to
as a whole is and always has hysterical i l l n e s s e s and
been characterized by highly suicide" (Freeman 1983a;153,
punitive parenting and a 225). Rape is a "common
strong emphasis on aggression occurrence" that has "long
and violence. been intrinsic to the sexual
Freeman was criticized on mores of Samoan men" and a
many counts. For example, he "major element in their sexual
has been criticized for his behavior" (Ibid.:245, 249-50).
misrepresentation of the Some Samoan researchers place
Mead/Boas relationship and his the " r e a l i t y " of Samoan
treatment of Boas' argument culture somewhere "in
with proponents of the between" Freeman's and Mead's
eugenics movement of the 20's pictures (e.g. Shore 1983),
as if people like Madison while others feel that Mead's
Grant were d i s i n t e r e s t e d characterization of Manu'a in
scholars (Weiner 1983); for the 1920's was substantially
his ignoring of current work correct (e.g. Holmes 1987). No
on the relations between Pacific ethnographer, however,
biology and culture and his has accepted Freeman's
failure to offer any description.
formulation of these Freeman was also faulted for
relations beyond programmatic ignoring the culture changes
statements such as that cited that have been taking place in
above (Levy 1983; Strathern Samoa (e.g. Ember 1985) as
1983); and for his mishandling well as i t s problems as a
of his own asserted scientific small Third World island
method (Patience and Smith nation beset by the
1986) . Freeman has also been difficulties of economic
criticized for the dependence and cultural
scientifically unjustifiable conflict (e.g. Shankman 1983).
selectivity of his citations. A New York Times writer
For instance, he cites every visited Samoa a f t e r the
appearance of Freeman's book
and found i t to be "a very
troubled place, plagued by
most of the difficulties
besetting developing
countries" (Bernstein
1983:54). The writer
continued,
In general, social
tensions are worse
in Western Samoa
[where Freeman
worked] than in the
far smaller, highly
subsidized American
Samoa [where Mead
worked]. Western
Samoa has the
world's highest rate
of s u i c i d e among
young people, a high
crime rate, a vagrancy (impossible in Samoa
yawning trade
deficit, political
difficulties and a
strange loss of i t s
historic self-
sufficiency.
As a major part of his
argument, Freeman cites police
records on v i o l e n c e and
delinquency among youth in the
1960's as if these logically
disproved Mead's account of
adolescence in a small remote
village in the 1920's. He does
not discuss the possiblity
that these data may t e l l us
something about the problems
of contemporary Samoa.
Instead, to Freeman, they
simply reveal the "darker
side," the "grim realities" of
an unchanging Samoan culture
(Freeman 1983a:xvii, 85). He
buttresses his argument with
examples of violence in the
ethnohistorical record without
any refence to their context,
a subject to which I shall
return below. His accounts of
rape and of youth suicide are
similarly ahistorical and
contextless. Nowhere does
Freeman make reference to the
kinds of problems some Samoans
I talked with discussed:
disjunctions between
traditional mores and
contemporary conditions in a
poor Third World island
nation; the problem of youth
unemployment (meaningless in a
subsistence economy but a
major problem throughout the
Third World t o d a y ) ; the
tragedy of a rising rate of
youth suicides (a problem of
concern throughout the South
Pacific as well as in many
other parts of the world); and
the new phenomena of teen-age
of the past) , and of teen-age
prostitution (a logical spin-
off of vagrancy in a port town
and a concern in Pago Pago) .
Nor does Freeman make any
reference to the dilemma of
young people who would strive
to f u l f i l l both old and new
goals—i.e. f u l f i l l parental
and kin expectations for their
contribution to the
traditional subsistence
economy (in which a fair
amount was expected of them,
but where the rewards were
predictable and certain), as
well as expectations for
their success at school and in
employment (where competition
i s intense, particularly in
Western Samoa, and where
effort may only result in
failure) (Leacock 1987).
A further criticism to be
levelled at Freeman pertains
to his insistence that Samoan
culture as described by Mead
constitutes the only known
"negative instance" of a
sexually permissive and devoted to amusement and the
relatively stress-free pursuit of pleasure"
adolescence, when, in fact, (Ibid.:64). He saw the
the ethnographic record offers induction into work as a
many such instances. One of gradual permissive process.
the best known was being Boys may participate in adult
documented at the very time activities, but
Mead was working on her Samoan
study. Before Mead ever went if they grow tired
to Samoa, Malinowski had of work, they simply
referred to the early age at stop and rest. The
which children "become self-discipline of
initiated into sexual l i f e . " ambition and
He wrote: subservience to
traditional ideals,
As they grow up, which moves a l l the
they live in elder individuals
promiscuous free and leaves them
l o v e , which relatively little
gradually develops personal freedom,
into more permanent has not yet quite
attachments, one of drawn these boys
wh i c h ends in into the wheels of
marriage. But before the social machine.
this is reached, Girls, too, obtain a
unmarried girls are certain amount of
openly supposed to the enj oyment and
be quite free to do excitement denied
what they l i k e . . . to children by
joining in some of
and he went on to describe the a c t i v i t i e s of
intervillage visiting parties their elders, while
where adolescent sexual s t i l l escaping the
adventure was expected and worst of the
accepted (Malinowski 1961 d r u d g e r y
[1922]:53). (Ibid.:65).
In a l a t e r publication,
Malinowski wrote that parental The Trobriand case does more
attitudes towards childhood than add further refutation to
sexuality were either the assumption that biological
indifferent or complacent. changes during adolescence
Parents "find i t natural and necessarily produce the sturm
do not see why they should und drana expressed in youth
scold or interfere. Usually violence, suicide, and other
they show a kind of tolerant disorders (c.f. Freeman
and amused i n t e r e s t , and 1983a:268). This and other
discuss the love affairs of instances where teen-age
their children with easy sexuality could be enjoyed
jocularity" (Malinowski 1941 without shame or guilty by
[1929]:56). He described the boys and girls alike
adolescent group as leading a (Schlegel and Barry 1980), and
"happy, arcadian existence, where teen-age induction into
work could be pleasant and
unpressured, point up a
process that has been taking
place in many parts of the
world where subsistence
economies have been engulfed
by expanding capitalist
relations. This is the process
whereby youth is transformed
from a period of maturation in
the context of an assured
future to a period of intense
competition for new and highly
desired but very limited
rewards. In each instance,
the intricacies of a unique
culture history are woven into
the specific pattern of stress
experienced by the young, yet
in broad outline the pattern
as a whole is repeated around
the world (Leacock 1987). It
is late in the day for an
anthropologist who purports to
be advancing scientific
methods to so totally ignore
such general world
developments. Although in
response to critics, Freeman
(1983b:116-118) has admitted
to some change in Samoa "since
the 1950's" he has maintained
his position that it is
irrelevant to his
characterization of Samoan
culture.
The irony of Freeman's
ahistorical analysis is that,
despite his claim to be moving
anthropology forward, his
concept of culture falls
squarely within the outmoded
functionalist framework shared
by Mead and other members of
the "personality and culture"
school. Freeman is still
caught in the bind that this
symposium is designed to
investigate—the bind of the
Western anthropologist who
presumes to interpret life in
a Third World country without
any reference to its history
of colonization or analysis of
the structure of colonial
domination and its thinly
veiled successor, called
economic dependence. Thus the
actors in Freeman's book
cannot be wholes. They are not
portrayed in their active
attempts to cope with changing
realities as they meld old
traditions with new ideas in
the fa'aSamoa—the "Samoan
way"—that guides behavior.
Freeman's culture is indeed a
mold. Samoan society and
behavior have changed so
little since the 20's, he
argues, that he can use data
from the 60's and as late as
1981 to refute Mead (Freeman
1983a:120).
Freeman, then, despite his
frequent protestations of
being misunderstood, has only
substituted a "negative" for a
"positive" stereotype of Samoa
and Samoans. As Lelei LeLaulu
(1983), a Samoan working in
the Secretariat of the United
Nations, has put it, it is all
very well to unsaddle Samoa
from the romantic myth of free
love under the stars, but he
is not happy about the effect
of replacing it with the myth
of having one of the highest
rates of rape in the world.
Sad to say, if Mead's work fed
into romanticized Western
images of the Pacific, that
would infantilize Samoans as
"simple happy natives,"
Freeman's supposed balancing
of the record with his
emphasis on aggression and
violence only helped derogate
discriminated against
communities in New Zealand,
Hawaii, and the United States
west coast, where; taken
together, more Samoans live
than on the islands
themselves. Despite the sharp
contrasts in their
presentations, both provided
images that could too easily
be incorporated into
ideologies used by the West to
rationalize its claim to world
hegemony. Both anthropologists
reified Samoan culture as
something apart from Samoan
history and the efforts of
different Samoan groups and
individuals to understand and
direct it, or at least
negotiate their own interests
in relation to its course.
Some concrete examples of what
I mean are called for before I
return to Western
anthropologists and where we
might go in relation to the
analysis of culture and
cultures.
CULTURE: FLAT AND IN THE ROUND
A Samoan friend, a very
thoughtful woman who had lived
abroad and returned, and who
was reading Mead's Coming of
Aae in Samoa after talking
with me, commented that the
behavior Mead described rang
true enough to her own
youthful experience, but that
she hated the way Mead wrote
about it. Her comment brought
out the difference between two
levels of culture—or between
the "social" and "cultural"
for those trained in that
terminological usage—that
is, between behavior itself
and the ways in which it is
typically felt, codified, and
evaluated. Mead admiringly
described the social skills
she observed in Manu'a that
kept things running smoothly
in a still primarily kin-based
society where large numbers of
people closely shared both
work and space. However, she
apparently took the
maintenance of a calm social
demeanor in the face of
personal trouble to be a
direct reflection of feelings
and referred insultingly to
Samoan emotions as "shallow."3
Yet the relations among
behavior, value-attitude
systems, and personality
patterns were a central
concern of Mead's throughout
her long life. Furthermore, in
an appendix to Coming of Age
she did attempt to locate the
Manu'a she studied in the
context of Samoan culture
history, noting, for example,
that colonization had muted
the potentially tyrannical
powers of chiefs without
destroying the security
derived from the "communal
ownership of property" (Mead
1973:154). While her
ethnocentric phrasing in the
rest of this passage is
embarrassing, and her view of
the benign influence of the
American Navy a distortion,
the point itself is well
taken. So is her forecast of
what the future will bring:
"Economic instability,
poverty, the wage system, the
separation of the worker from
the land and from his tools,
modern welfare, industrial
disease, the abolition of
leisure, the irksomeness of
bureaucratic government—these
have not yet invaded an island
without resources worth
exploiting" (Ibid.:154-155).
Returning to Freeman, I have
already referred to his use of
recent data on crime and
violence in Samoa as if they
were simply direct evidence of
these traits in the "Samoan
ethos," and his reference to Tagaloa, then, was
youth suicide as expressing an all-seeing, a l l -
the tensions of Samoan culture powerful creator
when i t i s a growing tragedy god, remote yet ever
throughout the world. 4 In present, peaceloving
dealing with the past as well, yet ever ready to
Freeman does not interpret p u n i s h the
individual and group actions disobedient and
and their relations to value- wayward, who bore a
attitude systems in the d i s t i n c t
context of particular resemblance to the
circumstances. Instead, though supreme and
he i s well aware that Samoans demanding god of the
are skilled at the art of ancient Hebrews and
hiding their feelings behind of the strait-laced
the appropriate facade when i t P r o t e s t a n t
i s necessary to do so (Freeman missionaries by whom
1983a:216-17) , when i t suits the pagan Samoans
his purpose of contradicting were so rapidly
Mead in each and every converted during the
particular, Freeman refers to fourth and fifth
particular behaviors as if decades of the
they directly expressed nineteenth 5 century
individual feelings and (Ibid.:183).
cultural values. His treatment
of conversion and the Holmes (1980), however,
emotional response of Samoans makes clear that the
to missionary activity conversion process described
provides an example. in nineteenth century
Freeman treats the missionary reports was a
introduction of Christianity prolonged one that met
into Samoa as a simple matter considerable resistance, and
of Western beliefs and their furthermore, that Samoans did
associated rituals being not simply adopt a Western
accepted by Samoans. He does belief, but took over the
not deal with the reactions church and made i t a Samoan
of Samoans to the church as an institution. Freeman's
institution that, on the one knowledge of Samoan
hand, opened up avenues for ethnography and ethnohistory
new interests and is formidable, yet for the
opportunities, but on the purposes of his argument with
other directly conflicted Mead he chooses to ignore the
with established codes for variability and complexity of
social behavior and indirectly Samoan relations with the
with patterns of economic missionaries. For example, he
activity. Freeman proposes (Freeman 1983a:213) cites as
that new beliefs and practices evidence of Samoan
were integrated with, or emotionality the loud weeping,
replaced old ones rapidly, the bodily convulsions, and
largely due to similarities in the outpouring of emotion in
Samoan and Western concepts of response to their sermons that
deity: astonished and gratified

10
Murray (in Tutuila in 1840) things which caused him "to
and Harbutt (in Upolu in conclude that it is a delusion
1841), but pursues the matter of the enemy and not the work
no further. Thereby he sloughs of the spirit" and that it was
over one of many interesting his duty "to stop its
examples of conflict between progress." He continued,
the Samoans who were
interested in the church and this threatens to be
the missionaries, albeit in no easy matter it
this case a minor one to do has taken such root
with ritual behavior. in the minds of
To elaborate on the subject, many—Several fell
Slatyer's (1841) account down in fits of
mirrors Murray's and Harbutt's crying, some
descriptions. Slayter's call apparently in
for a prayer to God to bless convulsions during
his labors for the salvation each of the services
of their souls was met with which I held, even
"the simultaneous weeping of during family
the whole congregation." prayer—but when I
questioned them
Not being able to closely they could
proceed with prayer give no reasonable
I looked abroad in account why they did
the Congregation and so and many things
to me it was the of which I took
most affecting sight notice at the time
I had ever when they so acted
witnessed... About convinced me neither
twenty minutes the tears nor
passed away before I outcries were real
could proceed with but counterfeit
my sermon. expressions of
feelings—I solemnly
However, it was not long told them the sin of
before the missionaries which I was certain
challenged this ritual form of many of them were
group supplication that, among guilty and charged
other considerations, them to desist...
interrupted their sermons and
transferred leadership from Several years later Bullen
themselves to their (1844) reported having a
congregations. Later in 1841, serious talk with Murray about
Harbutt (1841) wrote of a trip the abatement of religious
to Savaii that he found "a fervor and the problem of
source of great anxiety and people who were interested "in
grief" in relation to the the externals of religion"
"work similar to that which is rather than with God. The two
producing such blessed results men decided to hold a series
in Tutuila having commenced in of special meetings with
this part of my district." In teachers and their
this visit he noted many congregations in local

11
districts, in which the Samoan e x p r e s s i o n , "From
teachers "were to seek personal conversations with
especially the revival of most of the church members on
religion in their own hearts the subject, i t appears that
and in the church members." heart religion i s on the
However, when direct appeals decline among them."
to their conscience elicited The "teachers" referred to
"a burst of wailing long deep by Bullen were the converts
and loud," Bullen warned the assigned to different villages
congregation, he wrote, that who were to become the pastors
it was not "outward of an independent Samoan
expressions of sorrow but real Congregational church. As
love to Christ that will avail Bullen's report indicates, the
on that day when the secrets teachers, like their
of the heart shall be congregations, were by no
revealed." Bullen continued means simply accepting a new
that with respect to "that Western belief and all that i t
excess of feeling" presupposed, but instead were
adapting i t to Samoan mores.
I thought i t my duty The disinterested referred to
steadily though in Powell's letter was
gently to suppress actually in part a form of
what r i s i n g protest to the departure of
indications I saw of Murray, a man who was much
i t , and at the same loved and r e s p e c t e d . In
time to cherish keeping with Samoan ethics,
that inward personal t i e s of loyalty were
contrition of heart more salient guides for action
and silent grief for than the formal commitment to
sin, which would be the church that the
acceptable to God missionaries wanted Samoans to
and would give no put before all else.
interruption to the Furthermore, to the
services. missionaries 1 dismay, the
teachers expressed
A decade later, Stallworthy dissatisfaction with what they
(1854) wrote despondently, saw to be their second-class
"The impulse of first love has status; unsuccessfully they
spent i t s e l f . The novelty of went to strike in an effort
Christianity no longer to win the same kind of
attracts the people." Many who financial support from the
had turned to i t with "false church that the missionaries
impressions and expectations received. 6
have discovered their Missionary letters also
mistakes." He added reflect the proud refusal of
cynically, "They thirst, but most Samoans to concede to the
not for Christian waters," and far reaching cultural changes
that they had taken up again the missionaries sought as
the "narcotics or stimulants they tried to establish the
which they rejected for a rigid mores of the bpurgeois
season." About the same time Victorian family. Their strong
Powell (1853) wrote, using the emphasis on female dependence

12
and the double standard for
sexual behavior led the
missionaries to be suspicious
of the women's work group, the
auluma. and they tried to
break it up (Roach 1984). They
also fought what was for a
long time a losing battle with
the "night dances" and their
ritualized celebration of
sexuality. In fact, what the
historical record suggests—
though more research is needed
on the subject—is that the
formalities of the Victorian
family were not so much
introduced by the missionaries
in the mid-nineteenth century
as by the new elite that
became established later,
consisting of European
business men and their high-
ranking Samoan wives. It was
apparently in this new
socioeconomic stratum that the
role of the taupou became the
model for the deportment of
young women. The gratification
with which the mid-century
missionary letters tell the
individual women who went to
live in the mission in order
to avoid the advances of men
attests to the rarity of the
attitude the behavior
reflects.
However, many Samoans were
attracted to the missions for
a variety of reasons. New
medicines were important,
particularly since new
diseases were being
introduced. In the early days
the mission stations also
offered avenues to other
European goods and equipment.
However, the missions soon
came into conflict with the
traders, and the missionaries
bemoaned the alcohol and the
model for loose living that
the sailors provided, and
13
deplored the fact that trade
with whaling and other ships
reduced the gifts of coconut
oil which sustained their
enterprise. Of great and
lasting interest were the arts
of reading and writing, and
the new information,
literature, and ideas for
philosophical debate and
oratorical exercise that
missionary teachings offered.
Despite the decline of zealous
devotion on the part of adults
that the missionaries
reported, the figures they
gave on school attendance
among both boys and girls
remained relatively good. In
time the village schools run
by the pastors became a basic
part of village life and a
source of satisfaction to
those pastors who were deeply
dedicated to the service of
their parishes.
All told, the ultimate
success of the new religion
(both Catholic and Protestant)
lay in the fact that it became
grounded in new centers for
village life. Unfortunately,
the work of their wives with
women's groups is but
peripherally mentioned in the
missionary reports, but
Roach's (1984) research has
shown that women played a
large part in the
establishment of the church
and integrated it with many of
the village activities that
they governed. The village
churches also provided
gratifying careers, both for
men who were personally
ambitious and for those truly
committed to religious
teaching and other service.
Finally, but importantly,
churches that were well built
and well cared for served to
enhance village prestige. activities were collected, too
Freeman (1983a: 120) cites readily lend themselves to
Keesing on the conversion to stereotyping. The stereotyping
Christianity and establishment does not l i e only in the
of traders in Samoa as leading writing, of course; reading
to "a post-contact too is located in a social
•equilibrium of culture1" by context. Freeman continues to
1879. However, to characterize protest that a negative
the Samoan experience with the emphasis of his book has been
church in the limited terms of misread. Perhaps this is to
"conversion" and the some extent true, yet he
adaptation of old beliefs to cannot so easily absolve
Christianity is to ignore the himself from responsibility.
range of choices Samoans were As a social anthropologist and
making and the kinds of analyst of culture process, he
decisions they were should have been more
implementing, and thereby to sensitive to the impact the
distort an important chapter negative thrust of his
in recent Samoan history. For descrption would have.
his part, Keesing (1934:410) In the case of Mead, her
quotes a missionary view of Coming of Aae in Samoa and
the conversion process as other popular works are
follows: written with the purpose of
demonstrating the cultural
Instead of accepting variations possible in human
Christianity and societies, making clear that
a l l o w ing it to knowledge of these was
remold their lives important to the search for
to its form, the solutions to social problems,
Samoans have taken promoting a cultural
the religious relativist perspective of the
practices taught to world, and countering
them and fitted them ethnocentric bias.
inside Samoan Unfortunately, her refusal to
custom, making them deal with the political
a part of the native economy of colonialism and its
c u l t u r e . . . impact on the cultures she
Christianity, described led to the
instead of bursting distortions that contradicted
the bonds of the old her own commitments.
life, has been eaten Furthermore, Mead did cater
up by it.7 somewhat to the Western
romanticized view of the
HI STORY, ADVOCACY, AND THE Pacific Islands. Perhaps she
ANALYSIS OF CULTURE did so in part to mitigate the
Western bias toward non-
I have been making t h e p o i n t industrial societies; the
that cultural analyses which ethnocentrism and racism
focus on what people "are" or involved always pose a dilemma
"are not," without giving the for Western anthropologists.
historical context in which Perhaps in part her
data on their beliefs and romanticization followed from

14
the other side of the Western
coin—the wish for the more
cooperative and satisfying
life. In any case, it should
be pointed out that this
romanticization was neither as
great as Freeman claims (for
his carefully selected out-of-
context quotations leave
something to be desired by way
of accurate presentation), nor
as great as the reactions of
Mead's readers might appear to
illustrate. When using Coming
of Age in class for the first
time, I discovered the extent
to which, in their yearning
for a more supportive and
cooperative society, students
can bypass the problems Mead
discussed, and dwell enviously
on the relative lack of stress
experienced by Manu'a
adolescents in the 20*s. Small
wonder that Mead's book can be
so irksome when read as
characterizing Samoa of today,
rather than as describing a
particular facet of Samoan
culture history.
There is another historical
dimension that both Freeman
and Mead ignore, which is
where Samoa stood as a
Polynesian nation prior to its
entanglement with Europe and
the United States. Mead
alluded to the tyrannical
cruelty that could be
exercised by Samoan chiefs in
the past, by contrast with the
peaceful cooperat iveness of
village life she observed in
the 20's. Neither in Coming of
Age nor in works where she
dealt with competition,
warfare, and status striving
in Samoan society, did Mead
discuss how such contrasting
social principles could be
integrated. As for Freeman, he
describes the brutality that
15
could accompany inter-village
and inter-regional warfare
simply as exemplifying the
violence of Samoan society, in
general, and as "one side" of
an undefined human nature that
thus expresses itself. He then
alludes in a brief, hence
ineffective, one-paragraph
reference to the Samoan
"shining virtues" of
hospitality, generosity, and
kindness, again with no
discussion of how these relate
to the aggression and
competition he has so heavily
stressed (Freeman 1983a:278).
One focus of the Mead/Freeman
controversy, therefore, has
been on the extent to which
Samoans "are" competitive or
cooperative, assertively
aggressive or committed to
conciliation, freely emotional
or controlled, etc., when the
real questions pertain to the
socioeconomic underpinning of
competitive and cooperative,
aggressive or conciliatory,
and expressive or controlled
behavior; how these are
defined and how valued; how
expectations vary for
different social categories;
and how the whole has changed
over time.
Speaking in broad historical
terms often subsumed under the
rubric of "social evolution,"
Polynesian society at the time
of Western colonial expansion
was generally characterized by
the active efforts to undercut
the communal organization of
autonomous village units on
the part of rising elites who
were striving to establish and
consolidate economic and
political control (Goldman
1970; Sahlins 1958). Samoa was
among the more stratified of
the Polynesian nations, but
others, like neighboring otherwise. Human culture
Tonga, were more so, and in history was presented as
Samoa the structure of village demonstrating the unity of the
cooperat iveness was stoutly human s p e c i e s , and the
maintained. The potential for cooperative social
an extraordinary range of arrangements that once
behavior is a major prevailed throughout the world
characteristic of the human were seen as relevant to
species, but this does not attempts to reshape Western
explain seemingly conflicting society along cooperative
patterns in a given society. rather than exploitative
Institutional conflict was a lines. It should be added,
fundamental part of Samoan however, that the full
social l i f e at the time of implications of the latter
European expansion, and a full view could not be clearly
culture history of Samoa stated nor widely understood
would require analysis of how until there was a further turn
new relations with Europe and of the historical wheel. It
the United States interrelated was not until the latter 20th
with and exacerbated this century that recently
prior conflict, and how they independent nations, along
affected expectations about, with s t i l l directly oppressed
possibilities for, and colonial peoples, could point
influences on various proudly to their traditions of
behaviors on the part of the c o l l e c t i v e social
chiefly and non-chiefly, the responsibility as the answer
male and female, and old and for a world which
young. unrestrained profiteering is
To argue for the importance driving to destruction.
of treating any given culture The historical approach I am
in full historical urging, then, i s an historical
perspective, however, i s not approach that i s firmly linked
of i t s e l f sufficient. After with a commitment to cultural
all, history i s approached pluralism, cultural autonomy,
differently by analysts whose and national independence.
commitments differ. History These are familiar themes—
writ large, or "social hardly a meeting of the
evolution," offers a prime American Anthropological
example. In the hands of 19th Assocation takes place without
century ideologues who were the passing of one or more
seeking to justify Europe's resolutions supporting a
drive toward world domination, cultural or national freedom
human culture history was movement that is seeking
phrased in terms of progress support—yet i t i s not common
from "lower" to "higher" with for Western anthropologists to
the pinnacle of achievement think through the relationship
the "civilization" represented between such advocacy and
by Victorian society. In .the scholarly research. Gerrit
hands of those who critic 1 zed Huizer i s among those who have
the imperialism and argued that i t i s necessary to
capitalistic individualism of do so, and he elaborated on
the West, the case was the point at a conference on

16
research and development in Huizer*s position as a western
the South Pacific that brought anthropologist was
Western scholars together with complemented by the
scholars from the region. contribution to the same
Working as an applied conference by the Fijian
anthropologist in Latin scholar, Asesela Ravuvu. In
America, Huizer (1978:54) his paper, Ravuvu (1978:74-76)
found that summarizes the many problems
South Pacific peoples have
Through active with outside researchers: the
participation in the fact that "a great deal of
actual struggle of work being done in the Pacific
the peasants helping is oriented towards
them to build up maintaining the status quo:"
representative the fact that many
organizations to get researchers are primarily
their rights and interested in enhancing their
demands respected, professional status by
it could be contributing something "novel"
e m p i r i c a l l y rather than something relevant
demonstrated that to the concerns of oppressed
peasants are not so people; the fact that
apathetic or researchers are so often "not
traditional or prepared to listen with
resistant to change patience and understanding,"
as many scholars but are only interested in
(with spectator information that f i t s the
knowledge) still model they wish to establish,
believe, but rather a stance often met by l i e s on
the opposite. the part of the cross-
examined; the fact that most
With respect to the researchers aim "to achieve
stereotyped view of peasant scientific objectivity by
conservatism, Huizer notes remaining aloof and detached"
that "Resistance to change by from the practical problems of
the peasants is an expression people they are studying, an
of distrust which is attitude that "produces only
justified facing the distorted and scientifically-
repressive conditions under biased information;" and the
which they live--real fact that cultural information
organization i s not allowed," that might be useful is either
and that "Peasants can be presented in an unintelligible
mobilised for change if i t manner or altogether
is clear that they themselves unavailable. Ravuvu writes:
will fully benefit."
Huizer*s statement on the the distrust which
importance of active advocacy exists between
was delivered at a conference researchers and
on research and development in researched can be
the South Pacific that brought a v o i d e d if
western scholars together with researchers display
scholars from that region. tolerance and a

17
 s y m p a t h e t i c
understanding of the
people's way of l i f e
and problems. They
must be actively
involved in working
with the people, and
take positive action
to improve the
situation. This will
demand a great deal
of zeal, patience,
time and effort, but
the return—gaining
the confidence of
the people—are
great and very
satisfying. Concern
for other's welfare
must be the central
theme of most
researchers if they
are to be acceptable
and more meaningful
to those who are
being studied
(Ravuvu 1978:76).
This i s not to suggest that
taking the "right" stance
automatically guarantees the
quality of one's research;
research always has i t s own
requirements of good
scholarship and hard work. It
i s rather to say that advocacy
i s the key for the outsider to
the "inside" view that is
essential for the fully
rounded understanding of the
culture. Nor i s i t to suggest
that the most appropriate
advocacy stance i s always
self-evident, once one has
moved beyond the level of
support to broad independence
movements or to programs
concerned with health,
nutrition, and the like.
Applied anthropologists are
well aware of the important
difference between supporting
18
the right of a people to make
their own c h o i c e s , and
defending the perpetuation of
"traditional culture" per se.
I am not referring to what
used to be c r i t i c i z e d as
wanting to make museum
exhibits of "tribal"
cultures; anthropology has
grown well beyond that form of
romanticism. I am referring
instead to two other problems:
first that of defining what
the "traditional" i s , when
traditions have been
constantly changing, and
second that of dealing with
"traditional" inequalities
that call for reform.
With respect to reforming
"traditional" inequities,
political leaders in the South
Pacific are increasingly aware
of the need to find a new
voice for youth consistent
with the new demands being
made upon them, and men in
leadership positions are
increasingly having to respond
to women's demands for a
public voice and for attention
to their needs. Fortunately,
the conservative objection to
such seeming innovations may
well be met by historical
analysis of traditions and of
the role European influence
has had in reshaping and
redefining them. To take a
mundane and simple example,
Samoan women who are
criticized for defying the
"traditional" fa'aSamoa by
cutting their hair might well
rebut that they are the true
traditionalists, since before
the missionaries set about
changing Samoan styles, women
wore their hair short and men
l e t theirs grow long. Or, to
take a broader example', Samoan
women who run for public
office can point out that they b o t h , each
only wish to recreate in a new assisting the other,
setting the greater measure of a n d e a c h
gender reciprocity that complementing the
existed in daily village l i f e other's efforts to
before arenas for village develop scientific
autonomy became reduced by the findings in a way
modern commercial and most beneficial to
political structures that, the inhabitants of
following Western norms, are the Islands and all
so thoroughly male dominated. other human beings.
In sum, then, my argument is
that an historically oriented,
advocacy linked anthropology,
undertaken in active
collaboration with people
whose cultures are being
documented, treats culture in
context as multifaceted and
flexible, the embodiment of
past history that defines a
people, and that they draw on,
change, resist, and debate
about in relation to the
practical problems that
confront them. It is this
presentation that provides a
basis for scientific
understanding of the relations
between culture and behavior,
and not the contextless
reified image represented by
Freeman's analysis. Moreover,
the collaboration of
"insiders" and "outsiders" in
the study of cultures is
possible today to a wholly
unprecedented degree. To close
with Ravuvu's (1978:73) words
on the research enterprise he
is proposing:
The present problems
of the Pacific
Islands cannot be
left to the scrutiny
of the Pacific
Islanders themselves
nor to the foreign
research scholars.
It must be a shared
responsibility of

19
NOTES
1
Though Samoa is politically divided between American Samoa
and independent Western Samoa, ties between the two are close;
Samoa is one nation.
2
In the spring of 1985, I interviewed professionals working
with youth in both American and Western Samoa-teachers, school
principals, counsellors, psychologists, health workers, etc. I
also attended workshops that were being held on youth problems,
and, of course, attended festivities and visited and talked
informally with elders and youth. I am indebted to the American
Association of University Women for awarding me the Founders
Fellowship that made my research possible, and to the Faculty
Research Award program of the City University of New York.
3
The assumption that dispersed parenting and strong extended
kin ties would lead to "shallow" feelings was shared by other
members of the personality and culture school.
4
1 have elaborated on the problem of suicide in the South
Pacific in Leacock 1987.
5
Though the extent to which Samoan ethnohistorians will
concur with this phrasing of their original concept remains to be
seen. Freeman's account deals only with the Protestant
missionaries; the Marist Order was also active in Samoa and some
Samoans were converted to Catholicism.
6
Though it mnust be said that the missionaries did not have
an easy time of it. Their letters reflect their constant problems,
not only due to their low salaries, but to difficulties incurred
having additional expenditures reimbursed.
7
The fact this experience was repeated many times around the
world raises the question for research as to what extent the
missionary response may have contributed to the liberalization of
the church in the West that has since been taking place.

REFERENCES
Bernstein, Richard
1983 "Samoa: A Paradise Lost?" NEW YORK TIMES, April 24.
Bullen, T.
1844 Correspondance, in Archives of the London Missionary
Society (School of Oriental and African Studies,
University of London). South Seas, Samoan Islands, Box
17, Folder 7, Jacket A. August 6, Tutuila.

20