米德與科技

您能想像一個沒有電腦或電視的世界嗎？那您能想像一個沒有電燈，只能使用油燈進行閱讀或不用錢而改用貝殼購買食物的世界嗎？瑪格利特米德成長於1900年代早期的賓州，她使用油燈閱讀並騎乘馬兒及四輪馬車上學，她的家中甚至有自製的奶油。

同一時期，馬奴斯島 (Manus Island：位於南太平洋上，屬巴布亞新幾內亞的一部分)上的孩童正以貝殼錢、狗齒及魚來交換海龜、草裙及椰子。少數人身上帶有黑曜石刀身的匕首，以防必須與鄰近部落的人們作戰，有些鄰近部落是食人族。馬奴斯小孩的現有生活與他們遠古祖先的生活並無多大差異。

直到1960年代，賓州及其他如馬奴斯等地的孩童生活才開始發生變化。然而，根據米德的記錄，實際上，在某些方面，世界各地的孩童生活型態都越來越相像。


Can you imagine a world without computers or television? How about reading by oil lamps instead of electric lights or buying food with shells instead of dollars? When Margaret Mead was growing up in Pennsylvania in the early 1900s, she read by oil lamps and traveled to school in a horse and buggy. Her family even made their own butter.

Around the same time, kids on Manus Island (part of Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific) were trading shell money, dogs' teeth, and fish for turtles, grass skirts, and coconuts. A few carried obsidian-bladed daggers in case they had to fight neighboring tribespeople--some of whom were cannibals. Manus kids' lives were not that different than those of their distant ancestors.

By the 1960s, life had changed for kids in Pennsylvania, as well as for kids in places like Manus. But, according to Mead, life had actually become more similar in certain ways for kids all over the globe.