This book is the outstanding and most frequently cited work in the field of Anthropology. It made the author world-famous and established her as the leader in her field for the next 50 years. One of the reasons this book became so famous was her observation that young Samoan women deferred marriage for many years while enjoying casual sex before eventually choosing a husband. This led to the Sexual Revolution that swept America in the 1960s and brought about the establishment of the Sexual Freedom League and other organizations. The Free Love generation idolized Margaret Mead.