The trashing of Margaret Mead : anatomy of an anthropological controversy / Paul Shankman.

Madison, Wis. : University of Wisconsin Press, [2009], ©2009.

xvii, 299 pages : illustrations, map ; 23 cm.

Part I. The controversy and the media : The controversy in the media -- Selling the controversy -- Part II. Derek Freeman : Derek Freeman, the critic -- Psychoanalysis, Freeman, and Mead -- Part III. Margaret Mead and Coming of age in Samoa : Young Margaret Mead -- First fieldwork in Samoa -- Writing Coming of age in Samoa -- Mead's American audience in the 1920s -- Part IV. Sex, lies, and Samoans : What the controversy meant to the Samoans -- Samoan sexual conduct: belief and behavior -- Under the coconut palms -- Virginity and the history of sex in Samoa -- Part V. The broader issues : The many visions of the hoaxing hypothesis -- The nature-nurture debate and the appeal of Freeman's argument -- Conclusion -- Appendix: True confessions.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 271-288) and index.