Anthropology and Child Development: A Cross-Cultural Reader

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

Table of Contents:
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