Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Publication Type
Articles 1 - 5 of 5
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Playing With Knives: The Socialization Of Self-Initiated Learners, David F. Lancy
Playing With Knives: The Socialization Of Self-Initiated Learners, David F. Lancy
David Lancy
Since Margaret Mead’s field studies in the South Pacific a century ago, there has been the tacit understanding that as culture varies, so too must the socialization of children to become competent culture users and bearers. More recently, the work of anthropologists has been mined to find broader patterns that may be common to childhood across a range of societies. One improbable commonality has been the tolerance, even encouragement, of toddler behavior that is patently risky, such as playing with or attempting to use a sharp-edged tool. This laissez faire approach to socialization follows from a reliance on children as …
Ethnographic Perspectives On Culture Acquisition., David F. Lancy
Ethnographic Perspectives On Culture Acquisition., David F. Lancy
David Lancy
The study of cultural transmission has been dominated by the view that it occurs largely through a process by which adults—especially parents—transfer what they know to children. However, “instructed learning” or teaching is, in fact, quite rare in the ethnographic record. Rogoff reports of the Highland Maya that “of the 1708 observations of nine-year-olds, native observers could identify only six occasions as teaching situations” (1981:32). Bruner, in viewing hundreds of hours of ethnographic film shot among !Kung and Netsilik foraging bands, was struck by the total absence of teaching episodes. In a very recent study of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) …
Children’S Work And Apprenticeship, David F. Lancy
Children’S Work And Apprenticeship, David F. Lancy
David Lancy
Children appear to be predisposed to learn the skills of their elders, perhaps from a drive to become competent or from the need to be accepted or to fit in, or a combination of these. And elders, in turn, value children and expect them to strive to become useful̶often at an early age. The earliest tasks are commonly referred to as chores. David Lancy’s The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings (Lancy 2008, cited under Surveys), in surveying the relevant literature, advances the notion of a chore “curriculum.” The author notes that the tasks that children undertake are often graduated …
The Chore Curriculum, David F. Lancy
The Chore Curriculum, David F. Lancy
David Lancy
The term “curriculum” in chore curriculum conveys the idea that there is a discernible regularity to the process whereby children attach themselves to, learn, master and carry out their chores. While the academic or core curriculum found in schools is formal and imposed on students in a top-down process, the chore curriculum is informal and emerges in the interaction of children’s need to fit in and emulate those older, their developing cognitive and sensorimotor capacity, the division of labour within the family and the nature of the tasks (chores) themselves. In the remainder of this chapter, my goal is to …
Getting Noticed: Middle Childhood In Cross-Cultural Perspective, David F. Lancy, M. Annette Grove
Getting Noticed: Middle Childhood In Cross-Cultural Perspective, David F. Lancy, M. Annette Grove
Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications
Although rarely named, the majority of societies in the ethnographic record demarcate a period between early childhood and adolescence. Prominent signs of demarcation are: for the first time, pronounced gender separation in fact and in role definition; increased freedom of movement for boys while girls may be bound more tightly to their mothers; and heightened expectations for socially responsible behavior. But, above all, middle childhood is about coming out of the shadows of community life and assuming a distinct, lifetime character. Naming and other rites of passage sometimes acknowledge this transition, but it is, reliably, marked by the assumption or …