Margaret Mead and the Hippies

The Hippies began to reject accepted norms and regulations imposed on them by the government and conservative society as a whole. They decided to undergo social customs by not cutting their hair and wearing their own distinctive clothing and often rags to protest against the clean-cut hypocritical tendencies of their age. They resembled the Romantic Movement in that they preferred to base their actions on spontaneous outbursts of feeling rather than on rational thought. The fact that they used drugs was nothing new since the Romantics had already experimented with hallucinogenic drugs, mostly absinthe and opium.

The ideological beliefs of returning to nature and living in harmony with it had been mostly fueled by field studies of the anthropologist Margaret Mead, especially her work entitled “Coming of Age in Samoa”, in which she demonstrated that there were other alternative lifestyles. The Samoans apparently lived in perfect harmony with nature and each other and felt sexually liberated not being imposed by the stigmas and prohibitions of stifling communities that the modern world experienced at the time.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead, Anthropologist, 1901-1978

Margaret Mead taught generations of Americans about the value of looking carefully and openly at other cultures to better understand the complexities of being human. A deeply committed activist, Mead often testified on social issues before the United States Congress and other government agencies. She hoped that through all of these efforts others would learn about themselves and work toward a more humane and socially responsible society. As she once said, "I have spent most of my life studying the lives of other peoples -- faraway peoples -- so that Americans might better understand themselves."

"Maggie was a short little lady with immense courage-a first of a kind-took nothing for granted and wrote copiously of her field experience. She could be disarmingly friendly one minute and put you in your place the next" (Andrew Whiteford, Ph.D., 1999).