80 phrases and reflections by Margaret Mead

Margaret Mead She was a 20th century anthropologist and poet whose ethnographic research questioned the sexist sociocultural vision that was lived in the United States at that time.

Her discoveries were precursors to the use of the concept "gender", which is currently widely spread and is used by gender studies and feminists.

Best famous quotes from Margaret Mead

This great woman is a clear example of life and a figure that both men and women around the world should try to emulate.

That is why we have made a compilation of phrases and reflections of this icon of the real world of which, if it were not for her, we would not enjoy the cultural knowledge that we currently enjoy. Mead marked a before and after in her field of study.

1. Always remember that you are unique. Absolutely the same as everyone else

Each person is unique and at the same time one more in this society, we must value ourselves and value others.

2. There are always three parts to a memory, yours, everyone else's, and the truth, which is somewhere in the middle of the other two.

How we see things is only our perception, seen from another point of view, things do not have to be seen in the same way.

3. Children should be taught how to think, not what to think.

Children need to be free to choose their own path and head towards the future they want.

4. Never depend on institutions or governments to solve any problem. All social movements are founded, guided, motivated and seen by the passion of individuals.

People are the ones who make the difference and those who, with the strength of our thoughts and actions, can change the world.

5. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful and engaged citizens can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever did.

The strength of a collective that fights for its rights should never be underestimated.

6. I was wise enough to never grow up, while tricking people into thinking I did.

Keeping our inner child within us will make us more aware of whether the path we are following is really the one we should follow.

7. Laughter is the most distinctive emotional expression of man.

The act of laughing is not shared by any other living being in the animal kingdom, what we sometimes detect as a laugh in an animal tends to be rather misinterpreted signs of stress.

8. Women want mediocre men, and men are working hard to be as mediocre as possible.

We must strive, both women and men, to fulfill ourselves as people and reach the highest we can in our lives.

9. One of the oldest human needs is to make someone wonder where you are when you don't come home at night.

We all want someone to be home when we arrive and care about us, it comforts us and makes us feel loved.

10. There is no greater vision of the future than acknowledging... when we save our children, we save ourselves.

The future is children and the future of society depends on them, we must protect them and guide them towards a better future.

11. We are continually faced with great opportunities that are brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems.

Solving the problems we encounter during our lives gives us the opportunity to grow and improve as individuals.

12. You know you love someone when you can't put into words how they make you feel.

Love is something that many times it is difficult for us to express with words, what we feel is so complex that there are not enough words for it.

13. Young people are going from feeling guilty about sleeping with someone to feeling guilty if they don't sleep with someone.

In the old days, in society, extramarital affairs were much rarer, and during her lifetime, Margaret saw that trend change.

14. If the future is to remain open and free, we need people who can tolerate the unknown, who don't need the support of completely elaborate systems or traditional blueprints from the past.

Margaret tells us about the people who decided not to follow the social canons established to date and how they had to develop a new way of seeing life.

15. We will not have a society if we destroy the environment.

Margaret gives us this famous and very true quote in which she talks to us about the importance of preserving the environment.

16. It is easier to change a man's religion than to change his diet.

There are certain customs deeply rooted in us that are more difficult to change than others that seem more important.

17. I have to admit that I personally measure success in terms of the contributions an individual makes to human beings.

Success is relative, and for Margaret a man's success is measured by his contributions to society.

18. Every time we free a woman, we free a man.

All human beings are deserving of the same rights and obligations, we must be treated with the same dignity.

19. Sisters is probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters grow up, it becomes the strongest relationship.

A relationship between sisters can become such a powerful bond that nothing can break it.

20. My grandmother wanted me to have an education, so she kept me out of school.

In her childhood, Margaret did not go to school to avoid receiving the sexist education that was given to girls at that time.

21. An ideal culture is one that creates a place for every human being.

We must all have our place in society and our opportunities to grow within it.

22. I learned to observe the world around me and to write down what I saw.

Margaret, as an anthropologist, has long studied human beings and how we relate to each other.

23. America has the power to destroy the world, but not the power to save it alone.

The war power of the United States is undoubted, but its ability to help other countries is limited.

24. Prayer does not consume artificial energy, does not burn any fossil fuel, does not pollute. Neither the song, nor the love, nor the dance.

The things that fill us the most as people do not have any negative effect on the planet, society should consider a change of direction.

25. I learned the value of hard work by working hard.

When we strive for something and achieve what we set out to do, that is when we really see the result of our effort.

26. In the modern world, we have invented ways to speed up invention, and people's lives change so As soon as a person is born in one kind of world, he grows up in another, and by the time his children grow up, he lives in the world. different.

During our life, society changes so quickly that we must adapt again and again to the changes that it undergoes.

27. What people say, what they do, and what they say they do is something else entirely.

Many times the words and actions of people are totally contradictory, this usually happens because we are not consistent with our thoughts.

28. The way to do field work is to never take a breath until it's all over.

Sometimes the only way to get something done is to stick with it until it's done.

29. It seems to me very important to continue distinguishing between two evils. It may be necessary to temporarily accept a lesser evil, but one should never label an unnecessary evil as good.

Certainly, an unnecessary evil is something that cannot bring us any good and this should never be accepted.

30. Contempt for the law and contempt for the human consequences of breaking the law run from the bottom up in American society.

Margaret tells us here about the corruption and crime that was on the rise in American society at that time.

31. The Arapesh are a culture in which both sexes were placid and content, non-aggressive and non-initiative, non-competitive and receptive, warm, docile and trusting.

Margaret herself studied the Arapesh tribe of Papua New Guinea, from which she learned many things and left us comments like this.

32. Parents are biological necessities, but social accidents.

Many times our parents can be a headache on a social level, because we may not have a good relationship with them.

33. Sooner or later I'm going to die, but I'm not going to retire.

Margaret Mead confessed to us in this quote from her her intention to work until the last of her days.

34. Learned behaviors have replaced biologically given ones.

Our way of relating in society is a skill that we develop over the years and that has nothing to do with the way we would behave if it did not exist.

35. Instead of needing many children, we need children of high quality.

That children receive an education is of vital importance so that they, when they reach adulthood, can develop and be productive members of society.

36. Be lazy, go crazy.

In this quote, Margaret Mead encourages us to be who we really want to be no matter what others think.

37. Life in the 20th century is like a parachute jump: you have to get it right the first time.

Living in the 20th century, especially in the first half with two world wars, must have been something extremely complicated for the people who lived through it.

38. I don't believe in using women in combat, because women are too fierce.

A woman's worth in combat and in any other situation is equal to, if not superior to, that of any man.

39. I have spent most of my life studying the lives of other people, people far away, so that Americans can better understand each other.

Margaret, as an anthropologist, studied many societies and provided a lot of information about them that she would later share with all Americans.

40. A city should be a place where groups of women and men seek and develop the most important things they know.

Cities are the perfect place for people to develop in society and to reach our full potential as individuals.

41. We women are doing pretty well. We're almost back to where we were in the twenties (1976).

One of Margaret Mead's phrases in which she tells us about the setback suffered by the figure of women and encouraged them to fight for their rights and recognition.

42. We are living beyond our means. As people, we have developed a lifestyle that is draining the earth of its resources. priceless and irreplaceable without regard to the future of our children and people across the globe. world.

Living our lives without thinking about those who will come after us is something we have been doing for a long time and it will inexorably deplete the planet's natural resources.

43. We will be a better country when each religious group can trust its members to obey the dictates of their own religious faith without the help of their country's legal structure.

Religious freedom is a right that all people have and the State must guarantee it.

44. It has been the task of a woman throughout history to continue to believe in life when there was almost no hope. If we are united, we can produce a world in which our children and other people's children are safe.

It is the task of all men and women to fight for a better society, where the future of our children is guaranteed.

45. A city is a place where there is no need to wait for the next week to get the answer to a question. question, try food from any country, find new voices to listen to and familiar ones to listen to again.

Cities, as social nuclei, were admired by Margaret, as she was aware of the power they have to promote society and coexistence.

46. (Partly as a consequence of male authority) Prestige value is always attached to the activities of men.

Margaret tells us about how society has never valued women and the work they have done, always putting a male figure ahead.

47. Our humanity is based on a series of learned behaviors, intertwined in patterns that are infinitely fragile and never directly inherited.

Society is something very fragile that people have developed, but in crisis situations it becomes extremely affected because our way of acting in it is due to the fact that the situation is conducive to its normal functioning.

48. (In Western Samoa) native theory and vocabulary recognized the true pervert as one who was incapable of a normal heterosexual response.

Margaret tells us in that quote about the non-approval of Samoan society to homosexuals at that time.

49. Everything is ground to the mill of anthropology.

Anthropology as a study of man in the end reaches all the conclusions about it.

50. The solution to the problems of tomorrow's adults depends to a large extent on how our children grow today.

The education that we give our children will be what will give them strength in the future to solve the mistakes they make.

51. The ability to learn is older, as it is also more widespread, than the ability to teach.

To teach we must first learn, which is why human beings are more likely to learn than to teach.

52. We are now at a point where we must educate our children for what no one knew yesterday, and prepare our schools for what no one knows yet.

Guaranteeing the education of our children and committing to a quality educational system is something that we must do as a society.

53. I think extreme heterosexuality is a perversion.

Margaret tells us in this quote about her point of view that extremes are never positive for an equitable society.

54. When we look at different civilizations and see the very different styles of life to which the individual has had to conform and to whose development it has had to contribute, we feel our hope renewed in humanity and in its potentialities.

Throughout history, human beings have always found a way to improve themselves and grow as a society, Margaret tries to infuse us with this quote her positivity towards people.

55. All this indicates that there is a type of maladjusted person who is not maladjusted because they have some kind of physical or mental weakness, but because their innate dispositions clash with the norms of their society.

We always find ourselves with people who do not want or do not know how to relate to society and who end up colliding with it in an irremediable way.

56. If we want to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the full range of potentialities. and therefore weave a less arbitrary society, one in which the diversity of the human being finds a place appropriate.

All people are equal within society and allowing each one of us to grow with our particularities makes this society a better one.

57. I was brought up to believe that the only thing worth doing was adding accurate information about the world to the sum.

Bringing knowledge to people was the greatest ambition in the life of Margaret Mead.

58. Instead of being stereotyped by age, color, class, or religion, children should have the opportunity to learn that within each variety, some people are disgusting and others lovely.

Regardless of our skin color, social class or religion, we must all be treated fairly. same way and we have to value others for the people they are, not for the image we have of them. they.

59. The arbitrariness of putting all the play and learning in childhood, all the work in middle age and all the sorrows in old age is totally false and cruel.

Also as adults we must have free time to carry out activities that we like, we must not get carried away by the rhythm of society and stop having a personal life.

60. Many societies have educated men based on the simple fact of teaching them not to be women.

Sexist education has always been a problem for a large number of societies around the world.

61. I have a respect for manners as such, they are a way of dealing with people you don't agree with or like.

Respect for others is something very valuable, regardless of whether we share ideas or thoughts with them or not.

62. And when our baby moves and struggles to be born, he imposes humility: what we started is now his.

Being a mother is a life-changing experience that makes us more aware of our place in the world.

63. With television for the first time, young people witness the creation of history before it is censored by their elders.

Margaret doesn't talk here about the power of communication and how communication in the past was much more limited, making it much easier to manipulate people.

64. Anthropology demands the freedom with which one must look and listen, registering in wonder and wonder that one would not have been able to guess.

In anthropology, fieldwork gives us the opportunity to see these societies in their natural habitat and without filters to learn from them. Margaret was a wonderful anthropologist.

65. Human nature is potentially aggressive and destructive and potentially orderly and constructive.

Everything positive and everything negative in society is created by man, since he has the ability to do good or evil as he wishes.

66. As long as any adult thinks that he, like the parents and teachers of old, can be introspective, invoking his own youth to understand the youth before him, he is lost.

Each generation of young people brings something new to society and makes it totally different from those that preceded it.

67. Having two bathrooms ruined the ability to cooperate.

The lack of understanding in the human being is something that we have always faced, we must be more collaborators among ourselves.

68. The role of man is uncertain, indefinite and perhaps unnecessary.

The role that we impose on ourselves in society is something that biologically we do not need and that we really do not need to adopt.

69. Labor pains were totally different from the enveloping effects of other types of pain. They were pains that could be followed with the mind.

The miracle of giving birth is one of the experiences that can mark a woman the most, and something she will always remember.

70. The most extraordinary thing about a really good teacher is that he goes beyond the accepted educational methods.

A teacher should not be limited by conventional canons, he must develop and discover new ways of teaching his students.

71. It is an open question whether any behavior based on fear of eternal punishment can be considered ethical or should be considered merely cowardly.

A good question that makes us reflect on the religious phenomenon in human societies.

72. Instead of being presented with stereotypes based on age, gender, color, class, or religion, children should have the opportunity to learn that within each rank, some people are disgusting and others lovely.

A very good lesson that all children should learn.

73. Even if the ship sinks, the journey continues.

In life we ​​must move on regardless of the bad conditions that lie ahead.

74. Women have an important contribution to make.

Women have been discriminated against during the past centuries, now it is their turn to take the reins of civilization.

75. No society has been able to handle the temptations of technology towards dominance, waste, exuberance, exploration and exploitation. We have to learn to love this land and love it as something that is fragile, that is only one, it is all we have. We have to use our scientific knowledge to correct the dangers that come from science and technology.

A plea in favor of the preservation of planet earth, environmentalism and bequeathing a better world for our children.

76. It may be necessary to temporarily accept a lesser evil, but a necessary evil should never be labeled a good.

This applies as much to politics as to any aspect of daily life.

77. One of the most dangerous things that can happen to a child is to kill or torture an animal and get away with it.

Margaret Mead was a great guarantor of proportional education and of teaching children values.

78. The most human characteristic of man is not his ability to

learn, which it shares with many other species, but its ability to teach and store what others have developed and taught

Thanks to teaching, our species has evolved to reach the highest technological and social levels.

79. What we should do is take each of the societies as a kind of laboratory, in which we study some of the possibilities of human nature.

This great anthropologist always trusted in the infinite possibilities of improving the human condition.

80. I was wise enough to never grow up, while fooling people into thinking I had

With a young heart we will be forever young to achieve all our purposes.