Culture and Commitment: A Study of the Ge
比喩的な意味で.
美文体［美文家］.
造形芸術.
- Based on or making use of figures of speech; metaphorical:figurative language.
- Containing many figures of speech; ornate.
- Represented by a figure or resemblance; symbolic or emblematic.
- Of or relating to artistic representation by means of animal or human figures.
figurativeness fig'u·ra·tive·ness n.
In very stable, unchanging cultures youths learn from both their parents and their grandparents how to act as adults. These are postfigurative cultures, thus named because they look back to the past for guidance. Many native cultures were postfigurative before they gained access western culture via radio and TV.
Societies which exist in a state of change are called cofigurative cultures. Many western cultures in the twentieth century are examples of this. In this circumstance both youths and adults learn from their peers. Much of the past must be abandoned as new circumstances arrive demanding new behaviors.
Mead proposes that a third, prefigurative culture may emerge in the future. This type of society is subject to continued, radical change. In it adults learn from their children. Youths have the adaptability to cope with rapid change. They must 'make up' their behavior as they go along. Peers can help but even they remain largely ignorant of 'what is right' as change is so rapid.
This book was written just after the counter-culture of the 1960s. At the time it must have seemed that the world was going to experience an alarming rate of change. As a result of the baby boom youth seemed to be taking over the world. Prefigurative culture never eventuated but of course that is not to say it can never happen.neration Gap
The problem of the generational process has been Mead's long standing concern throughout her outstanding professional career be ginning with her research on Samoan adolescents in the late 1920's. Her contribution to the understanding of youth and cultural change (among others in the area of culture and personality) made her prominent not only in anthropology but also in cross-disciplinary fields and journalism. She has written a number of articles on Ameri can education and has been an outspoken critic of American education and culture. Perhaps the timely publication of Culture and Commitment was anticipated by sensitive students of contemporary culture who have given attention to Mead's frequent commentaries on American youth. But even for her, this was a bold attempt because she had to reduce her enormous miscellaneous observations on cultural process and generation change to a little over a hundred pages. It created un fortunate burdens which Mead must bear as her readers scrutinize her work. For without adequate regard for the variations and complex ity of the issue discussed, Mead makes... (preview truncated at 150 words.)
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