New Lives for Old: Cultural Transformation--Manus, 1928-1953

When Margaret Mead first studied the Manus Islanders of New Guinea in 1928, they were living with a Stone Age technology and economically vulnerable; they seemed ill-equipped to handle the massive impact that World War II had on their secluded world. But a unique set of circumstances allowed the Manus to adapt swiftly to the twentieth century, and their experience led Mead to develop a revolutionary theory of cultural transformation, one that favors rapid, over piecemeal, change. As relevant today as it was a half-century ago, New Lives for Old is an optimistic examination of a society that chose to change.

How could a Stone Age culture transform itself in a single generation—and what can their story teach our own rapidly changing world?

• A Landmark Case Study: Follow Margaret Mead as she returns to the Manus people of New Guinea twenty-five years after her initial study to document one of the most astonishing transformations ever recorded.
• Rapid Cultural Transformation: Discover Mead’s revolutionary theory that a society can leap from Stone Age practices to twentieth-century life more successfully through rapid, all-encompassing change rather than slow, piecemeal evolution.
• The American WWII Impact: Witness the profound and unexpected effect of a million American GIs, whose technology and egalitarianism inspired the Manus to choose their own path to modernization.
• An Anthropology Classic: Explore the optimistic and deeply human story of a society that, when faced with overwhelming change, chose not to disintegrate but to reinvent itself entirely.