Margaret Mead would have been a hundred years old last
December and her centennial was celebrated throughout 2001.The life of a
single individual can symbolize important abstractions. Mead was
committed to anthropology as a human science and to learning from other
cultures.
Mead's work spanned many cultures, so she was
interested in all areas of difference between groups and how to
transcend these. As a scientist, she had a broad sense of the relevance
of anthropology to social action. As a public figure, she spoke out on
and wrote about race relations, gender roles, culture, environmental
justice, education, health and nutrition, child rearing, and self
empowerment within communities.
Mead stands as a reminder of the range of issues we
must integrate in planning for the future -- for 2001 and all that
follows. Let Mead's life, her words and image, touch your imagination.
As we move forward, Mead reminds us of the possibility of choice.
