Veronica Gonzalez

Nov 14, 2023 | sapiens.org | Stephen Nash |Victoria Gibbon |Veronica Gonzalez |Beni Sumer Yanthan

The first Christian missionaries arrived in Samoa in 1830, almost a century before Margaret Mead set out to study the culture of the islands. By the time she arrived, the church had been a central part of Samoan life for generations. In this episode, co-host Doris Tulifau explores how Christianity and colonization complicate Mead’s—and her critic anthropologist Derek Freeman’s—conclusions and continue to shape Samoan identity today.

Nov 7, 2023 | sapiens.org | Stephen Nash |Victoria Gibbon |Veronica Gonzalez |Beni Sumer Yanthan

In January 1983, the front page of The New York Times read: “New Samoa Book Challenges Margaret Mead’s Conclusions.”Anthropologist Derek Freeman had been building his critique of Mead for years, sending her letters and even confronting her in person. Freeman’s resulting book, Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and Unmaking of an Anthropological Myth, was published five years after Mead died. Who was Freeman, and why did he take such issue with Mead’s work in American Samoa?

Oct 31, 2023 | medium.com | Veronica Gonzalez

II. The cry of darkness. O n a cold and desolate night the cracks began to creak, in search of answers the gazes sank into the darkness, waiting to see the beast break its cage and come to the surface. The walls fell and the birds sang a cry of despair that awakened every soul that was dozing in its dreams. And so the darkness arrived, in the form of a whisper it traveled through the mountains, blackening everything in its path.

Oct 31, 2023 | sapiens.org | Stephen Nash |Victoria Gibbon |Veronica Gonzalez |Beni Sumer Yanthan

Sparked by a provocative encounter in American Samoa, Doris Tulifau explores modern-day Samoan attitudes toward Margaret Mead. With a mix of voices and opinions, we encounter three loud ideas around Mead’s work, ultimately dropping us at the doorstep of Derek Freeman’s central critique about Samoan culture and society.

Oct 31, 2023 | medium.com | Veronica Gonzalez

I. The black stones and the distant sea. I n the days of the dead trees, the sighs of dreams lasted so short that everyone doubted their existence. Everyone sang into nothingness, searching for the voices of the shadows that numbed the pain and covered the gnawed bones in the earth with a warm blanket. Unknown words that flew and did not return to be heard, eternally lost. And the more they searched for each other with incessant madness, the more forgotten they became on the threshold of time.