Anthropology and Child Development : A Cross-Cultural Reader

by LeVine, Robert A.; New, Rebecca S.

• ISBN13: 9780631229766
• ISBN10: 0631229760
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-02-11
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This unprecedented collection of articles is an introduction to the study of cultural variations in childhood across the world and to the theoretical frameworks for investigating and interpreting them. With a focus on the childrs"s participation in, and acquisition of, cultural practices, the readings include ethnographic studies of childhood among hunting-and-gathering, agricultural, and urban-industrial peoples in the Pacific, Africa, Latin America, East Asia, Europe, and North America. Introductions to each section provide the student with an historical and conceptual framework for understanding the significance of the particular studies and their implications for developmental theory and educational practice. From the earliest analysis of cultural difference to the most recent articles examining ecological, semiotic, and sociolinguistic difference, The Anthropology of Childhood illuminates the process through which people become the bearers of their historically and culturally specific identities.

Author Biography

Robert A. LeVine is a professor emeritus of education and anthropology at Harvard University. He has been investigating child rearing and development for more than 50 years, in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. His recent books include Childhood Socialization: Comparative Studies of Parents, Learning and Educational Change (2003), Japanese Frames of Mind: Cultural Perspectives on Human Development (2001), and Child Care and Culture: Lessons from Africa (1994).

Rebecca S. New is associate professor of education and research fellow at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She has spent three decades studying the cultural nature of child development and early education, most often in Italy and recently in Head Start programs serving immigrant populations. Publications include the four-volume Early Childhood Education: An International Encyclopedia (2007).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. viii
Introduction	p. 1
Discovering Diversity in Childhood: Early Works	p. 9
Introduction	p. 11
Plasticity in Child Development	p. 18
The Ethnography of Childhood	p. 22
Childhood in the Trobriand Islands, Melanesia	p. 28
Tallensi Childhood in Ghana	p. 34
Continuities and Discontinuities in Cultural Conditioning	p. 42
Infant Care: Cultural Variation in Parental Goals and Practices	p. 49
Introduction	p. 51
The Comparative Study of Parenting	p. 55
Infant Care in the Kalahari Desert	p. 66
Multiple Caregiving in the Ituri Forest	p. 73
Fathers and Infants among Aka Pygmies	p. 84
Swaddling, Cradleboards and the Development of Children	p. 100
Talking and Playing with Babies: Ideologies of Child-Rearing	p. 115
Attachment in Anthropological Perspective	p. 127
An Experiment in Infant Care: Children of the Kibbutz	p. 143
Early Childhood: Language Acquisition, Socialization, and Enculturation	p. 157
Introduction	p. 159
The Acquisition of Communicative Style in Japanese	p. 165
Why African Children Are So Hard to Test	p. 182
Autonomy and Aggression in the Three-Year-Old: The Utku Eskimo Case	p. 187
Narrating Transgressions in U.S. and Taiwan	p. 198
Child's Play in Italian Perspective	p. 213
Discussione and Friendship in Italian Peer Culture	p. 227
Middle and Later Childhood: Work, Play, Participation, and Learning	p. 245
Introduction	p. 247
Age and Responsibility	p. 251
Child and Sibling Caregiving	p. 264
Altruistic and Egoistic Behavior of Children in Six Cultures	p. 270
Children's Daily Lives among the Yucatec Maya	p. 280
Children's Work, Play, and Relationships among the Giriama of Kenya	p. 289
Epilogue	p. 307
Index	p. 309
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