Continuities in Cultural Evolution

by Margaret Mead

Overview

Margaret Mead once said, "I have spent most of my life studying the lives of other peoples—faraway peoples—so that Americans might better understand themselves." Continuities in Cultural Evolution is evidence of this devotion. All of Mead's efforts were intended to help others learn about themselves and work toward a more humane and socially responsible society. Scientist, writer, explorer, and teacher, Mead brought the serious work of anthropology into the public consciousness. This volume began as the Terry Lectures, given at Yale in 1957 and was not published until 1964, after extensive reworking. The time she spent on revision is evidence of the importance Mead attached to the subject: the need to develop a truly evolutionary vision of human culture and society. This was desirable in her eyes both in order to reinforce the historical dimension in our ideas about human culture, and to preserve the relevance of historical and cultural diversity to social, economic, and political action. Given the present state of academic and public discourse alike, this volume speaks to us in a language we badly need to recover.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780765806048
Publisher:	Transaction Publishers
Publication date:	06/30/1999
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	526
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Margaret Mead

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations, Introduction to the Transaction Edition, Preface, Introduction, PART I, PART II, PART III, APPENDICES, Notes, References, Index of Sources

Editorial Reviews

"Margaret Mead lives on. She is with us in the brilliant studies she conducted on human behavior; she lives on in the many books she has authored; her ideas thrive in the minds of her students whom she stimulated with her zeal and zest for the search for knowledge and truth." —Senator Jacob K. Javits, The Congressional Report "Margaret Mead was a unique person, prodigious in her work and achievements. She almost single-handedly represented us to the public by her gift for depicting, beautifully and with deep respect, other cultures and other peoples." —Donald F. Tuzin and Theodore Schwartz, Oceania

From the Publisher

Essays reworked from a lecture series give a picture of ideas considered 40 years ago on the evolution of human cultures. Includes b&w photos of indigenous peoples. Originally published as part of the Dwight Harrington Terry Foundation Lecture Series on Religion in the Light of Science and Philosophy in 1964 by Yale University Press. Mead (1901-1978) was associated with the American Museum of Natural History in New York for over 50 years. This edition includes a new introduction by Stephen Toulmin, who teaches multiethnic and transnational studies at the University of Southern California. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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