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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

When Nurture Becomes Nature: Ethnocentrism In Studies Of Humandevelopment, David F. Lancy Jan 2010

When Nurture Becomes Nature: Ethnocentrism In Studies Of Humandevelopment, David F. Lancy

David Lancy

This commentary will extend the territory claimed in the target article by identifying several other areas in the social sciences where findings from the WEIRD population have been over-generalized. An argument is made that the root problem is the ethnocentrism of scholars, textbook authors, and social commentators, which leads them to take their own cultural values as the norm.


Learning Guided By Others, David F. Lancy, M. A. Grove Jan 2010

Learning Guided By Others, David F. Lancy, M. A. Grove

David Lancy

Anthropologists who study children in traditional societies almost universally note the absence or great rarity of adults teaching children in the village setting. Children are encouraged to learn on their own. This chapter teases out those instances where, in the view of adults, independent learning is not sufficient. In some situations,adult intervention—usually falling short of “teaching”—is deemed necessary. The chapter focuses on four very general issues. At what age is the child targeted for a course correction or intervention to facilitate his or her development and socialization? What is the substance or goal of this intervention? What should the child …


Learning “From Nobody:” The Limited Role Of Teaching In Folk Models Of Children’S Development, David F. Lancy Jan 2010

Learning “From Nobody:” The Limited Role Of Teaching In Folk Models Of Children’S Development, David F. Lancy

David Lancy

Among the Western intelligentsia, parenting is synonymous with teaching. We are cajoled into beginning our child’s education in the womb and feel guilty whenever a ‘teaching moment’ is squandered. This paper will argue that this reliance on teaching generally, and especially on parents as teachers, is quite recent historically and localised culturally. The majority follow a laissez faire attitude towards development that relies heavily on children’s natural curiosity and motivation to emulate those who are more expert.


Children Learning In New Settings., David F. Lancy Jan 2010

Children Learning In New Settings., David F. Lancy

David Lancy

This chapter uses a wide-angle lens to briefly examine the many new settings that village children find themselves adapting to. Those settings include schools that have barely taken root in the village, labor, urban streets, and the milieu of the insurgent band.