Final answer:
Margaret Mead's fieldwork revealed cultural variations in gender roles and sexual attitudes, notably in Samoa and New Guinea, challenging the notion that gender behaviors were strictly biologically based. She is also credited with pioneering the use of visual media in anthropological research.
Step-by-step explanation:
Cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead made significant discoveries during her fieldwork which challenged traditional views on gender roles and sexuality in various cultures. In her seminal work, Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935), Mead found that among the Arapesh and Mundugumor in New Guinea, men and women were considered temperamentally similar, contradicting the prevalent belief that gendered behaviors were largely biologically determined and similar across cultures.
In her most famous book, Coming of Age in Samoa (1928), Mead observed that Samoan culture possessed a more relaxed and open attitude toward sexuality compared to the United States. Samoan boys and girls were expected to experiment with romantic and sexual relationships, experiencing adolescence not as a crisis but as a time of freedom and adventure. Mead's findings suggested that culture played a pivotal role in shaping gender roles and adolescent experiences.
An early pioneer in the use of visual media for research, Mead and her husband, Gregory Bateson, utilized photography and film extensively in their ethnographic studies in Bali and New Guinea, thereby introducing innovative methods in anthropology.