“Both men and women are conceived as merely capable of response to a situation that their society has already defined for them as sexual, and so the Arapesh feel that it is necessary to chaperon betrothed couples who are too young… with their definition of sex as a response to an external situation rather than as spontaneous desire, both men and women are regarded as helpless in the face of seduction. Parents warn their sons even more than they warn their daughters against permitting themselves to get into situations in which someone can make love to them.”

— Margaret Mead

Source: 1930s, Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935), p. 140

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Margaret Mead 133

American anthropologist 1901–1978

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“[Mead described the Arapesh as a culture in which both sexes were] placid and contented, unaggressive and noninitiatory, noncompetitive and responsive, warm, docile, and trusting.”

Margaret Mead (1901–1978) American anthropologist

Source: 1930s, Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935), p. 39 as cited in: Guy R. Lefrançois (1973) Of children; an introduction to child development. p. 65

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Margaret Mead 133

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