Malinowski鈥檚 Kiriwana by Michael W. Young, University of Chicago Press,
拢31.95/$40, ISBN 022687650
The Fateful Hoaxing of Margaret Mead by Derek Freeman, Perseus 拢16.50,
ISBN 0813335604
THE IDEA of a Western anthropologist taking 鈥渙bjective鈥� photographs of a
primitive people seems embarrassingly na茂ve these days. Malinowski鈥檚
Kiriwana comes as something of a revelation, therefore. Michael Young has
persuaded today鈥檚 Trobriand islanders to comment on a series of Malinowski鈥檚
unpublished photographs from 1915 to 1918. His work stands up surprisingly well
to this inspired modern interrogation.
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Not that a camera could have helped Margaret Mead much in her study of the
sexual mores of adolescent girls in Samoa. The project was the brainchild of her
supervisor, anthropology鈥檚 founding father in the US, Franz Boas. Mead鈥檚 first
love, by contrast, was ethnography, and so she neglected her funded project
until, desperately short of time, she had to fall upon her supervisor鈥檚 mercy:
鈥淚f I simply write conclusions and use my cases as illustrative material will it
be acceptable?鈥� Boas said it would.
Embarrassed by her frantic inquiries on sexual matters, Mead鈥檚 virginal
companions, Fofoa and Fa鈥檃pua鈥檃, sought refuge in ribaldry and tosh. Mead鈥檚
subsequent account of free love, Coming of Age in Samoa, was an instant
bestseller.
From Derek Freeman鈥檚 balefully minute scrutiny of the biographical evidence,
you can practically taste the professional hostility he鈥檚 faced since blowing
the whistle on Mead. But his book, The Fateful Hoaxing of Margaret
Mead, far from attacking her, shows how ordinary her faults were: too great
a trust in a loved teacher, denial in the face of deadlines, intellectual
distractions. That one of the most spectacular scientific hoaxes this century
comes down to a couple of graduate cockups makes Freeman鈥檚 point wonderfully:
that science is unremittingly difficult.
Malinowski, a self-confessed klutz, knew this too; reading his self-critical
notes, one concludes that science would run a deal smoother without the people
who do it.