"Anthropology demands the open-mindedness with which one must look and listen, record in astonishment and wonder that which one would not have been able to guess"
About this Quote
The subtext is an argument about power. “Guessing” is what outsiders do when they treat other societies as puzzles to solve or specimens to classify. Mead flips it: the point isn’t to confirm what the West already believes about gender, family, sexuality, or “civilization,” but to let evidence destabilize those assumptions. Astonishment becomes a moral posture - a refusal to domesticate difference into something comfortably familiar.
Context matters. Mead built a public-facing version of anthropology in the early-to-mid 20th century, when debates about nature versus nurture were politically charged and colonial attitudes still shaped research. Her line reads like a manifesto for cultural relativism: take people on their own terms, accept that your common sense is local, and treat the unexpected not as error but as data.
Quote Details
| Topic | Learning |
|---|---|
| Source | Verified source: Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (Margaret Mead, 1950)
Evidence: But this misconception comes from a lack of understanding of what anthropology means, of the open-mindedness with which one must look and listen, record in astonishment and wonder, that which one would not have been able to guess. (Preface (1950 edition), p. xxvi). Earliest primary-source locating I could verify online is Mead’s own 1950 preface to the (originally 1935) book. The commonly-circulated standalone version usually begins with “Anthropology demands…”, but in the verified primary text it appears as part of a longer sentence and does not include the word “demands.” Wikiquote provides the preface citation (1950 edition, p. xxvi) and the text; however, because Wikiquote is a tertiary aggregator, I’m marking confidence as medium until the 1950 edition scan/physical copy is checked to confirm the page and punctuation. Still, this is pointing to the primary origin being Mead’s 1950 preface (not a later speech/interview). Other candidates (1) Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations (Carl C. Gaither, Alma E. Cavazos-Gaither, 2012) compilation95.0% ... Mead , Margaret 1901-78 American anthropologist Everything is ... [ Anthropology demands ] the open - mindedness ... |
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Mead, Margaret. (2026, February 17). Anthropology demands the open-mindedness with which one must look and listen, record in astonishment and wonder that which one would not have been able to guess. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/anthropology-demands-the-open-mindedness-with-14817/
Chicago Style
Mead, Margaret. "Anthropology demands the open-mindedness with which one must look and listen, record in astonishment and wonder that which one would not have been able to guess." FixQuotes. February 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/anthropology-demands-the-open-mindedness-with-14817/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Anthropology demands the open-mindedness with which one must look and listen, record in astonishment and wonder that which one would not have been able to guess." FixQuotes, 17 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/anthropology-demands-the-open-mindedness-with-14817/. Accessed 5 Mar. 2026.
