Virginity and Veracity

Rereading Historical Sources in the Mead-Freeman Controversy

Bibliographic Data

ID2736773
AuthorsPaul Shankman (corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume53
Issue3
Pages479-505
Publication date2006-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEthnohistory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0014-1801 • E-ISSN: 1527-5477
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00141801-2006-002
OpenAlexW1991611286
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited13

In the Mead-Freeman controversy, Derek Freeman argued that historical sources support his view that the traditional values of the Samoan system of institutionalized virginity (or taupou system) were preserved and reinforced throughout the colonial era. A closer examination of two sources used by Freeman, authored by Augustin Krämer and Newton A. Rowe, demonstrates that the taupou system, as well as many of the values and practices associated with it, were in decline during this period. This latter interpretation, favored by Margaret Mead, is also supported by Freeman's own postgraduate diploma thesis, a source hitherto unused in the controversy

Aesthetics · Interpretation (philosophy) · Period (music) · ROWE · Samoan · Sociology · Virginity test · Classics · Gender Studies · History · Multicultural Socio-Legal Studies · Philosophy

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