The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “Margaret Mead”

Two Hundred Years of Blue
Two Hundred Years of Blue

Cerulean splendor from Goethe, Thoreau, Virginia Woolf, Vladimir Nabokov, Rachel Carson, Toni Morrison, and other literary masters.

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Composing a Life: Anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson on Our False Mythos of Achievement and the Messy, Nonlinear Reality of How We Become Who We Are
Composing a Life: Anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson on Our False Mythos of Achievement and the Messy, Nonlinear Reality of How We Become Who We Are

“The knight errant, who finds his challenges along the way, may be a better model for our times than the knight who is questing for the Grail.”

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Margaret Mead’s Beautiful Letter of Advice to Her Younger Sister on Starting a Family in an Uncertain World
Margaret Mead’s Beautiful Letter of Advice to Her Younger Sister on Starting a Family in an Uncertain World

In praise of “living more intensely and doing better work” whatever life may throw your way.

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James Baldwin and Margaret Mead on Reimagining Democracy for a Post-Consumerist Culture
James Baldwin and Margaret Mead on Reimagining Democracy for a Post-Consumerist Culture

“Democracy should not mean the leveling of everyone to the lowest common denominator. It should mean the possibility of everyone being able to raise himself to a certain level of excellence.”

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A Rap on Race: Margaret Mead and James Baldwin’s Forgotten Conversation about Forgiveness and the Difference Between Guilt and Responsibility
A Rap on Race: Margaret Mead and James Baldwin’s Forgotten Conversation about Forgiveness and the Difference Between Guilt and Responsibility

“We’ve got to be as clear-headed about human beings as possible, because we are still each other’s only hope.”

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Legendary Anthropologist Margaret Mead on Work, Leisure, and Creativity
Legendary Anthropologist Margaret Mead on Work, Leisure, and Creativity

“If we make one criterion for defining the artist… the impulse to make something new… — a kind of divine discontent with all that has gone before, however good — then we can find such artists at every level of human culture, even when performing acts of great simplicity.”

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A Cultural History of Santa: Margaret Mead’s Fictional Interview with the Jolly Gift-Giver Celebrating Generosity and the Universal Spirit of Giving
A Cultural History of Santa: Margaret Mead’s Fictional Interview with the Jolly Gift-Giver Celebrating Generosity and the Universal Spirit of Giving

“Giving is itself a kind of thank offering.”

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James Baldwin and Margaret Mead on Religion
James Baldwin and Margaret Mead on Religion

“If any particular discipline … does not become a matter of your personal honor, your private convictions, then it’s simply a cloak which you can wear or throw off.”

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Margaret Mead and James Baldwin on Identity, Race, the Immigrant Experience, and Why the “Melting Pot” Is a Problematic Metaphor
Margaret Mead and James Baldwin on Identity, Race, the Immigrant Experience, and Why the “Melting Pot” Is a Problematic Metaphor

“You’ve got to tell the world how to treat you. If the world tells you how you are going to be treated, you are in trouble.”

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Margaret Mead on Myth vs. Deception and What to Tell Kids about Santa Claus
Margaret Mead on Myth vs. Deception and What to Tell Kids about Santa Claus

How to instill an appreciation of the difference between “fact” and “poetic truth,” in kids and grownups alike.

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