While conducting fieldwork in Samoa, Mead became interested in local adolescent behavior compared to the behavior in Western Culture. Her studies led her to the conclusion that adolescent behavior was affected by the culture that surrounded it. While Mead's findings in her book "Coming of Age in Samoa,", which was published in 1928, made a great impact on thinking of social scientists of the time, her studies have come under much recent scrutiny, most notably, by the criticism of anthropologist Derek Freeman.Freeman claims that from his investigation of Mead's fieldwork in Samoa that her conclusions of the adolescent behavior are at odds with relevant facts. He believes that her findings are the result of a hoaxing pulled over on her by native Samoans. In 1989 filmmaker Franz Heimans visited Samoa to make a film about Mead's fieldwork there in 1925 and 1926. Freeman accompanied Hiemans with hopes of finding someone to speak with about what Mead had done while she visited Somoa. Freeman came across two people who had direct connections with Mead. Galea'i Poumele, son of Fofoa who was one of Mead's closest friends at the time, and Fa'apua'a Fa'amu, who was her best friend while she was in Samoa.
When Freeman interviewed these two people he came across some interesting information. Fa'apua'a told him that Mead had questioned her and Fofoa about what they did at nights and they had jokingly said they spent their nights with boys. Fa'apua'a said she never thought Mead would have believed them, but had realized when she read Mead's account of Samoa, that it was faulty and Mead's conclusions had based on the fibs that Fa'apua'a and Fofoa had told her. Fa'apua'a adamantly explained to Freeman that she had not intended to mislead Mead, but it is custom for Samoan's to exaggerate and joke when asked about sexual behavior. Fa'apua'a said her far-fetched tales mislead a great many people and she wanted to set the record straight.
After Freeman recorded Fa'apua'a's answers and told her how important to anthropology her claims were, he asked her to swear on the Bible that her testimony was true to the best of her knowledge. The swearing of oaths is a common practice in Samoa and devout Christians like Fa'apua'a believe swearing falsely upon the Bible will result in immediate sickness or death along with eternal damnation. Samoans generally believe it is one of the most serious of actions and believing this, Fa'apua'a took an oath confirming everything she had told Freeman. ("The Fateful Hoaxing of M.M." Freeman, 1999; pgs. 3-7).
(http://members.fortunecity.com/dikigoros/meaddebate.htm)
Margaret Mead, Derek Freeman, and the issue of evolution Skeptical Inquirer, Nov-Dec, 1998 by Paul Shankman
Initially, Freeman argued that a young, gullible Mead mistook Samoan jokes about sexual conduct for the truth, and that this alleged mistake led to the false doctrine of absolute cultural determinism, which in turn had profound intellectual consequences. Recently, Freeman has given more attention to the issue of evolution, which he believes is at the heart of the controversy. Specifically, he holds Mead responsible for the anti-evolutionary paradigm in which only cultural variables are important and in which "all human behavior is the result of social conditioning.
(http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_n6_v22/ai_21275523/pg_1)