ABSTRACT
Freud’s (1913c) Totem and Taboo can be claimed to be the first attempt in modern times to formulate a comprehensive theory of culture, construing the origin of culture to Darwin’s Origin of Species. However, we have to take later criticism into consideration, as well as the disillusioned view that Freud himself (1930) later took on culture. Critical perspectives were also taken by other authors who described European culture from a virtually external point of view. Places like the South Pacific became a projection screen for alternative drafts of paradise-like places that contrasted sharply with the accelerating lifestyle of the industrial culture. Under the influence of her mentor Franz Boas, Margaret Mead wrote her Coming of Age in Samoa (1928), which very strongly influenced 20th century pedagogics and had a long-lasting impact on social sciences and educational policies. However, Freeman (1983) challenged Mead’s (1928) work as an ‘anthropological myth’.
