Page "Margaret Mead" Paragraph 28

In 1996 Martin Orans examined Mead's notes preserved at the Library of Congress, and credits her for leaving all of her recorded data available to the general public.

Orans concludes that Freeman's basic criticisms, that Mead was duped by ceremonial virgin Fa ' apua ' a Fa ' amu ( who later swore to Freeman that she had played a joke on Mead ) were false for several reasons: first, Mead was well aware of the forms and frequency of Samoan joking ; second, she provided a careful account of the sexual restrictions on ceremonial virgins that correspond's to Fa ' apua ' a Fa ' auma ' a's account to Freeman, and third, that Mead's notes make clear that she had reached her conclusions about Samoan sexuality before meeting Fa ' apua ' a Fa ' amu.

He therefore concludes, contrary to Freeman, that Mead was never the victim of a hoax.

As Orans points out Mead's data support several different conclusions, and that Mead's conclusions hinge on an interpretive, rather than positivist, approach to culture.

Evaluating Mead's work in Samoa from a positivist stance, Martin Orans ' assessment of the controversy was that Mead did not formulate her research agenda in scientific terms, and that " her work may properly be damned with the harshest scientific criticism of all, that it is ' not even wrong '".