CONTESTING THE EROTIC ZONE: MARGARET MEAD'S FIELDWORK PHOTOGRAPHS OF SAMOA

Authors

Sharon W. TiffanyFollow

Abstract

Margaret Mead's photographs taken during her first ethnographic fieldwork in the South Pacific have received little scholarly attention. While some of Mead's images borrowed from earlier photographic conventions, her pictures also challenged prevailing representations of Polynesian women. Mead's photos experimented with alternative visual narratives about Samoan women's bodies and their everyday lives, in contrast to signature images of Pacific Islander women as commoditized sex objects, exoticized women of power, or as romanticized primitives. Mead's first effort at using a camera in the field provided a spectrum of representations useful for re-interpreting female embodiment and the gender politics of the photographic gaze.

Recommended Citation

Tiffany, Sharon W. (2005) "CONTESTING THE EROTIC ZONE: MARGARET MEAD'S FIELDWORK PHOTOGRAPHS OF SAMOA," Pacific Studies Journal: Vol. 28: No. 2, Article 2.
Available at: https://digitalcollections.byuh.edu/pacific-studies-journal/vol28/iss2/2