Book Reading #31: Coming of Age in Samoa

Chapter 10: The Experience and Individuality of the Average Girl

Coming of Age in Samoa

Margaret Mead

Summary: In this chapter Mead discusses in depth the Samoan customs about sex, focusing more in the young (past poverty) girls than in the rest of society, but still explaining a bit about each age group. In the Samoan culture, children are exposed to situations like birth, death, and sexual relations, at a very young age; Mead states this fact does not seam to affect them in a negative, traumatic way. This is the first chapter were it seems like mead starts analyzing and explaining to the reader her own thoughts, rather than just the customs, like it is seen in the previous chapters.

Discussion: Like I said, I feel that this chapter is the very first one where she is able to present her studies in the girls, and give the reader an explanation about her findings. The previous chapters seemed to be aimed at giving the reader background of the Samoan society in order to better understand the meat of her studies. It seems to me that their view regarding sexuality is very different from what I expected - in America, at least that is my understanding, virginity was given much regard around those days. However, there is that big irony of how they do not express any signs of 'love' in front of others, but (1) there isn't much privacy around anyway, and (2) they do not give sexual interactions much regard any way.