Margaret Mead was an influential 20th century anthropologist who studied how culture and society influence human behavior and development. Her most famous work, Coming of Age in Samoa, analyzed the transition from childhood to adulthood in Samoan culture and found it lacked the stresses of adolescence in Western societies. However, her research methods and findings were later criticized. Overall, Mead emphasized that cultural norms, not biology, dictate gender roles and the life course in different societies.