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Homo Faber Juvenalis: A Multidisciplinary Survey Of Children As Tool Makers/Users, David F. Lancy
Homo Faber Juvenalis: A Multidisciplinary Survey Of Children As Tool Makers/Users, David F. Lancy
Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications
The overall goal of this paper is to derive a set of generalizations that might characterize children as tool makers/users in the earliest human societies. These generalizations will be sought from the collective wisdom of four distinct bodies of scholarship: lithic archaeology; juvenile chimps as novice tool users; recent laboratory work in human infant and child cognition, focused on objects becoming tools and; the ethnographic study of children learning their community’s tool-kit. The presumption is that this collective wisdom will yield greater insight into children’s development as tool producers and users than has been available to scholars operating within narrower …
How Do Children Become Workers? Making Sense Of Conflicting Accounts Of Cultural Transmission In Anthropology And Psychology, David F. Lancy, Christopher A.J. Little
How Do Children Become Workers? Making Sense Of Conflicting Accounts Of Cultural Transmission In Anthropology And Psychology, David F. Lancy, Christopher A.J. Little
Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications
This article uses children’s work as a lens to examine methodological concerns in the study of cultural transmission and children’s learning of useful domestic and subsistence skills. We begin by providing a review of the relevant literature concerning cultural transmission in the context of the ethnographic record, as well as more recent studies originating largely from psychology. We then offer an ethnographic case study concerning Asabano (PNG [Papua New Guinea]) childhood to make an important methodological contribution in the interdisciplinary study of cultural transmission. The case study centers on the paradox that Asabano parents, in interviews, claim that their children …
Children As A Reserve Labor Force, David F. Lancy
Children As A Reserve Labor Force, David F. Lancy
Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications
Human life history is unique in the great length of the juvenile or immature period. The lengthened period is often attributed to the time required for youth to master the culture, particularly subsistence and survival skills. But an increasing number of studies show that children become skilled well before they gain complete independence and the status of adults. It seems, as they learn through play and participation in the domestic economy, children are acquiring a “reserve capacity” of skills and knowledge, which they may not fully employ for many years. The theory offered here to resolve this paradox poses that, …