Blackberry Winter / Margaret Mead

 Word Count: 236

Parker Greene

From Blackberry Winter by Margaret Mead

" My decision to become and anthropologist was based in part on my belief that a scientist, even one who had no great and special gift such as a great artist must have, could make a useful contribution to knowledge. … Even in remote parts of the world ways of life about which nothing was known were vanishing before the onslaught of modern civilization. " (pg. 555)

In Blackberry Winter Margaret Mead talks about how she became an anthropologist to help contribute something great to the world. In this endeavor Margaret Mead chose to go into field work as quickly as possible, so she did all of the necessary requirements, and then also chose to try to uncover more about Samoan's specifically but would search for others as well. It is quite fascinating how anthropologists are able to learn so much about civilizations that were once lost with excavations and learning the language. However what also struck me was how Margaret Mead says that we are losing more and more parts of history due to modern civilization taking over more and more land. Anthropologists must have a tough battle with time and the modernization of the world, in growth aspects, since these scientists would have to work quickly to learn as much as possible about said civilization and do it before a new highway is built over it.