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Articles 1 - 14 of 14
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) …
Teaching: Natural Or Cultural?, David F. Lancy
Teaching: Natural Or Cultural?, David F. Lancy
David Lancy
This chapter will argue that teaching, as we now understand the term, is historically and cross-culturally very rare. It appears to be unnecessary to transmit culture or to socialize children. Children are, on the other hand, primed by evolution to be avid observers, imitators, players and helpers—roles that reveal the profoundly autonomous and self-directed nature of culture acquisition (Lancy in press a). And yet, teaching is ubiquitous throughout the modern world—at least among the middle to upper class segment of the population. This ubiquity has led numerous scholars to argue for the universality and uniqueness of teaching as a characteristically …
Kpelle Children At Play, David F. Lancy
Kpelle Children At Play, David F. Lancy
David Lancy
Although children’s play has been a relatively popular subject for anthropologists who study childhood, comprehensive studies of the entire play repertoire in a society are rare. One such study was carried out among the Kpelle people in the remote Liberian village of Gbarngasuakwelle four decades ago. A summary of that study reveals that Kpelle children have access to a rich store of traditional play-forms including make-believe, board-type games, active play, contests and folklore. A major finding affirmed that play, far from being the antithesis of work or a reversal of cultural ideals, fundamentally supports and affirms the child’s acquisition of …
Babies Aren’T Persons:” A Survey Of Delayed Personhood., David F. Lancy
Babies Aren’T Persons:” A Survey Of Delayed Personhood., David F. Lancy
David Lancy
To better understand attachment from a cross-cultural and historical perspective, I have amassed over 200 cases from the ethnographic and archaeological records that reveal cultural models (D'Andrade and Strauss 1992) of infancy. The 200 cases represent all areas of the world, historical epochs from the Mesolithic to the present and all types of subsistence patterns (Appendix 1). The approach is inductive where cases with similar models of infancy are clustered into archetypes. My principal finding from this analysis is that, in the broadest overview, infants are, effectively, placed on probation and not immediately integrated into the society. Attachment failure is …
Cultural Variation In Life Phases., David F. Lancy, M. Annette Grove
Cultural Variation In Life Phases., David F. Lancy, M. Annette Grove
David Lancy
The knowledge base in the study of human development is built primarily from work with children from the modern, global, post-industrial population. This population is unrepresentative in many respects, not least in that childhood and adolescence is dominated by the experience of formal schooling—an experience missing from the lives of most of the world’s children until very recently. This entry will examine child development from the perspective of pre-modern societies as described in the ethnographic, archaeological and historic records. Specifically, we will review material indicative of cultural or indigenous models of development, phases and phase transitions, in particular.
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 …
When Nurture Becomes Nature: Ethnocentrism In Studies Of Humandevelopment, David F. Lancy
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
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
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
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.
Cultural Constraints On Children’S Play, David F. Lancy
Cultural Constraints On Children’S Play, David F. Lancy
David Lancy
No abstract provided.
Rhinestone Cowgirl: The Education Of A Rodeo Queen, M. Raitt, David F. Lancy
Rhinestone Cowgirl: The Education Of A Rodeo Queen, M. Raitt, David F. Lancy
David Lancy
No abstract provided.