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.
Presents a history of cross-cultural approaches to child-development
Recent articles examine diverse contexts of childhood in ecological, semiotic, and sociolinguistic terms
Includes ethnographic studies of childhood in the Pacific, Africa, Latin America, East Asia, Europe and North America
Illuminates the process through which people become the bearers of culturally/historically specific identities
Serves as an ideal text for anthropology courses focusing on childhood, as well as classes on development psychology
Acknowledgments x
Introduction 1
Robert A. LeVine and Rebecca S. New
Part I Discovering Diversity in Childhood: Early Works 9
Introduction 11
1 Plasticity in Child Development 18
Franz Boas
2 The Ethnography of Childhood 22
Margaret Mead
3 Childhood in the Trobriand Islands, Melanesia 28
Bronislaw Malinowski
4 Tallensi Childhood in Ghana 34
Meyer Fortes
5 Continuities and Discontinuities in Cultural Conditioning 42
Ruth Benedict
Part II Infant Care: Cultural Variation in Parental Goals and Practices 49
Introduction 51
6 The Comparative Study of Parenting 55
Robert A. LeVine, Suzanne Dixon, Sarah E. LeVine, Amy Richman, Constance Keefer, P. Herbert Liederman, and T. Berry Brazelton
7 Infant Care in the Kalahari Desert 66
Melvin J. Konner
8 Multiple Caregiving in the Ituri Forest 73
Edward Z. Tronick, Gilda A. Morelli, and Steve Winn
9 Fathers and Infants among Aka Pygmies 84
Barry S. Hewlett
10 Swaddling, Cradleboards and the Development of Children 100
James S. Chisholm
11 Talking and Playing with Babies: Ideologies of Child-Rearing 115
Catherine Snow, Akke De Blauw, and Ghislaine Van Roosmalen
12 Attachment in Anthropological Perspective 127
Robert A. LeVine and Karin Norman
13 An Experiment in Infant Care: Children of the Kibbutz 143
Melford E. Spiro with the assistance of Audrey G. Spiro
Part III Early Childhood: Language Acquisition, Socialization, and Enculturation 157
Introduction 159
14 The Acquisition of Communicative Style in Japanese 165
Patricia M. Clancy
15 Why African Children Are So Hard to Test 182
Sara Harkness and Charles M. Super
16 Autonomy and Aggression in the Three-Year-Old: The Utku Eskimo Case 187
Jean L. Briggs
17 Narrating Transgressions in U.S. and Taiwan 198
Peggy J. Miller, Todd L. Sandel, Chung-Hui Liang, and Heidi Fung
18 Child's Play in Italian Perspective 213
Rebecca S. New
19 Discussione and Friendship in Italian Peer Culture 227
William A. Corsaro and Thomas A. Rizzo
Part IV Middle and Later Childhood: Work, Play, Participation, and Learning 245
Introduction 247
20 Age and Responsibility 251
Barbara Rogoff, Martha Julia Sellers, Sergio Pirrotta, Nathan Fox, and Sheldon H. White
21 Child and Sibling Caregiving 264
Thomas S. Weisner and Ronald Gallimore
22 Altruistic and Egoistic Behavior of Children in Six Cultures 270
John W. M. Whiting and Beatrice Blyth Whiting
23 Children's Daily Lives among the Yucatec Maya 280
Suzanne Gaskins
24 Children's Work, Play, and Relationships among the Giriama of Kenya 289
Martha Wenger
Epilogue 307
Index 309
