Final answer:
Margaret Mead viewed the shaping of male and female behavior as largely the result of social and cultural factors, rather than being biologically deterministic. Her field studies in New Guinea and Samoa uncovered significant variability in gender roles across cultures, challenging prevailing notions of gender behavior.
Step-by-step explanation:
Margaret Mead, a prominent cultural anthropologist, challenged the long-held view that male and female behavior is biologically predetermined. Through her fieldwork in New Guinea, Mead observed vast differences in gender roles and behaviors across three different cultural groups. In her 1935 book, Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies, Mead discovered that the Arapesh and Mundugumor societies had little distinction between male and female temperament, while the Tchambuli (Chambri) society projected divergent gender roles, placing women in a dominant role over the more emotional and less assertive men. This indicated that gender behaviors are not merely a result of biological differences but rather are socially constructed and vary greatly across cultures.
In her comparison between Samoan and American societies, Mead highlighted a more relaxed and open attitude towards sexuality and adolescence in Samoa, contrasting with the repressive and disciplined sexual socialization in the United States. Her work emphasized the role of culture in gender socialization and the powerful influence societal expectations have on individuals. Although Mead's findings have been controversial, they have contributed significantly to the understanding of gender as a social construct rather than a purely biological categorization.