Post #712537 by Cammo on Sun, Mar 30, 2014 7:34 AM

I just read Margaret Mead's "Coming Of Age in Samoa" - a lot of it has been discounted, and I don't think Mead had any idea at all how much Samoan society had already changed by the 1920's when she visited. Nonetheless, you can see exactly how seriously they took division of the sexes; Samoans were simply not allowed any contact whatsoever with the other sex. Mead thought that these prison-like guidelines were actually much more psychologically good for the teenagers as there was an age-old pre-approved outlet for almost all behavior types.

There was a short period (when very young) when all the village kids play together, but even this was incredibly brief due to Samoans basically making their children slaves of every adult whim...