A revealing portrait of the relationship between two major figures in the history of anthropology. The account traces the career of Margaret Mead as she popularizes ethnographies with her commentary on the people and cultures of the South Pacific and that of Ruth Benedict as she fights the misogyny of academia. It seeks to approach Mead and Benedict from a new perspective, one informed by women's studies, feminist psychology, and lesbian studies. The work is also about the ""kinship of women"" - its loyalties, its commitments, and the courage required to sustain it.