Margaret Mead collaborated with her long-time colleague Rhoda Métraux in this unique study of French culture. The Hoover Institute at Stanford University originally published this volume, which grew out of the Columbia University project on Research of Contemporary Cultures in 1954. It is one of the few works by American social scientists dealing with broad themes of French life.Mead and Métraux present a vivid picture of the French starting with the organization of the house and its architecture, and drawing original conclusions for the structure of French families and overall cultural values. This work, long out of print, is a fascinating and penetrating portrait of a contemporary European society.
Margaret Mead served as Curator of Ethnology at the American Museum of Natural History from 1925 to 1969. She began her career with a study of youth and adolescence in Samoan society, published as Coming of Age in Samoa (1928). She published prolifically, becoming a seminal figure in anthropology, and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1979.
IntroductionMargaret MeadPART I: THEMES IN FRENCH CULTURERhoda MétrauxChapter 1. The Foyer: The World WithinChapter 2. Education: The Child in the FoyerChapter 3. The Foyer: The World OutsidePART II: THREE BACKGROUND PAPERSChapter 4. The Family in the French Civil Code: Adoption and the Tutelle OfficieuseNelly Schargo Hoyt and Rhoda Métraux Chapter 5. Plot and Character in Selected French Films: An Analysis of FantasyMartha Wolfenstein and Nathan LeitesChapter 6. An Analysis of French Projective TestsTheodora M. Abel, Jane Belo, and Martha Wolfenstein