Comparing Durkheim And Margaret Mead

In this paper, I will be comparing and contrasting the place of the individual in Durkheim's work and that of Margaret Mead. While being one of the most controversial anthropologists Mead is also one of the most widely read anthropologists. She made a name for herself early on in her career through her advocacy of reforming social conditions and central issues in society based on comparative anthropological work (Molloy 2008). She used her personal life and her research in the field to explore the relationships between gender, childhood, and society. She studied the place of the individual throughout her life with the help of other anthropologists who made an impact on her such as Franz Boas and Ruth Benedict.
Émile Durkheim, was a French
Mead argued that, “the individual is a product of cultural behavior that shapes the person in common but unique manners that then are reinterpreted and reexpressed, relived as the infant becomes an adult, as the child becomes a parent” (Moore 104). She also stressed the question of how can human societies be so different, not just on the surface, and yet how can there be such unanimity as to the values and practice in the society as a whole. This question of the individual lead Mead to study human development, more specifically; the way an infant is bathed, the intimacy of husband and wife, and the way that life teaches a child their place in the world (Moore 106). In contrast, Durkheim did not believe exactly what Mead thought and did not have huge ideas on the place of the individual. Instead, his work was based on the relationship of the individual to social solidarity and how the individual, as they grow up, become more dependent on their society (Moore 45). He uses the idea of hunters and gatherers and how they are taught to survive on their own even though they are a part of a society that depends on them. He draws the conclusion that although one is an integral part of a society, one may have all the necessary skills for individual