For most of the 20th century, the most famous anthropologist in the world. Published studies on native Polynesian behavior (including Coming of Age in Samoa and Coming Up in New Guinea) that raised many eyebrows, particularly when it came to documenting the practice of casual sex. Derek Freeman's 1999 work, The fateful hoaxing of Margaret Mead: A historical analysis of her Samoan research, analyzes Mead's findings and methods, though that work itself has come under criticism.
[1] West Park Hospital, Philadelphia, PA.
Father: Edward Sherwood Mead
Mother: Emily Fogg Mead (b. 1871, d. 1950)
Brother: Richard (b. 1903)
Sister: Katharine (d. 1907, age 9 months)
Sister: Elizabeth (b. 1909)
Sister: Priscilla (b. 1911)
Husband: Luther Sheeleigh Cressman (b. 1897, archaeol., m. 3-Sep-1923, div. 1928, d. 1994)
Daughter: Mary Catherine Bateson Kassarjian (anthropologist)
Husband: Gregory Bateson (anthropologist, m. 1936, div. 1951, d. 4-Jul-1980)
Husband: Reo Fortune (m. 1928, div. 1934)
Girlfriend: Ruth Benedict
University: DePauw University (one year, 1919)
University: BS Anthropology, Barnard College (1923)
University: PhD, Columbia University (1929)
Professor: Visiting Lecturer, Vassar College (1939-41)
Professor: Adjuct Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University (1954-)
Administrator: Chairman, Social Science Division, Fordham University (1971-)
Presidential Medal of Freedom 1979 (posthumously)
National Women's Hall of Fame 1976
American Museum of Natural History Asst. Curator of Ethnology (1926-)
World Federation for Mental Health President (1956-57)
American Anthropological Association President (1960)
National Research Council Food Habits Committee (1942-45)
American Association for the Advancement of Science President (1971)
Author of books:
Coming of Age in Samoa (1928, nonfiction)
Growing Up in New Guinea (1930, nonfiction)
The Changing Culture of an Indian Tribe (1932, nonfiction)
Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935, nonfiction)
And Keep Your Powder Dry (1942)
Male and Female: A Study of the Sexes in a Changin World (1949, nonfiction)
People and Places (1959)
Continuities in Cultural Evolution (1964, nonfiction)
The Family (1965)
Culture and Committment (1970, nonfiction)
Blackberry Winter: A Memoir (1972, memoir)
Born: 