weisner - childhood. anthropological aspects

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Scales P C, Leffert N 1999 Deelopmental Assets: A Synthesis ofthe Scientific Research on Adolescent Deelopment. SearchInstitute, Minneapolis, MN

Starkman N, Scales P C, Roberts C 1999 Great Places to Learn:How Asset-Building Schools Help Students Succeed. SearchInstitute, Minneapolis, MN

Werner E E, Smith R S 1992 Oercoming the Odds: High RiskChildren from Birth to Adulthood. Cornell University Press,Ithaca, NY

P. L. Benson and N. Leffert

Childhood: Anthropological Aspects

The anthropological study of childhood first docu-ments and accounts for the variety of childhoodsfound around the world; second, uses the comparativeethnographic record to test hypotheses about humandevelopment; and, third, studies the mechanisms inchild, family, and community life for the acquisition,internal transformations, sharing, and intergenera-tional transmission of culture.

A thought experiment will illustrate the anthro-pological point of view about childhood. Imagine anewborn, healthy infant. What is the most importantthing that you could do to influence the life of thatinfant? Most respond by mentioning dyadic inter-action with the baby: hold and touch the infant a lot;provide good nutrition and health care; providestimulation to achieve school success; love the baby;give it wealth and social capital, and so forth.Anthropologists believe that the most importantinfluence in human development is the cultural settingwithin which the infant will grow up. It is how, why, andby whom children are held, loved, fed, stimulated,punished, provided resources, and so forth, and howthat varies so widely across human communities, thatis the focus of inquiry. Shaping a whole personengaged in family and cultural community life is thepurpose of childhood development from an anthro-pological perspective. Childhood is a cultural projectwith goals, meanings, constant adaptation, andstruggle, and anthropology provides the evidence forthe startling and remarkable varieties of childhoodslived around the world. Biological, psychological, andcultural anthropologists collaborate in the study ofchildhood, since biology, mind, and culture are allrequired to understand childhood.

The study of childhood and the process of childrenacquiring culture was almost entirely neglected byanthropologists until after 1925 (Whiting 1968).

Although much progress has been made, anthro-pology does not yet provide a single unified theory ofwhy and how childhoods vary around the world, or ofchildhood acquisition of culture. Rather the field offersrich, multivariate hypotheses and data on childhood(Super and Harkness 1997).

1. The Stages of Childhood

Five stages of human growth and development arecommon to Homo sapiens: infancy, childhood, juve-nility, adolescence, and adulthood (Bogin 1999).Margaret Mead described lap children (infants, aged01), knee children (toddlers, 23), yard children(preschool, 45), and community children (juveniles inmiddle childhood, 612). Anthropologists analyze the

cultural meaning of the very idea of stages, sincestages are used to account for childrens behavior(hes crying but it is OK, because hes still a toddler),as well as to assure and define normal and appropriatedevelopment (she is eight, and so old enough to starthelping run our household). Human cultures weavewonderful variations, meanings, and stories aroundpan-human maturational stages of childhood. TheBeng of Ivory Coast for example, believe that youngchildren are still partly in yet another stage, a culturalworld called wrugbe, where ancestors share life withprebirth children who are ambivalent about leavingthat world. This helps explain for Beng why infants cryor are sickly: they want to return to wrugbe.

2. Conceptions of Childhood in Anthropology

There are a variety of perspectives on childhood inanthropology. In one view, children are socialized intoa set of norms and customs that they learn and thenperpetuate. In this view, children are small adults inthe making, ready receptors of traditions, shaped byparents and community adults to insure continuity incultural and moral education, competence for survivalin the ecology of the community, respect for tradition,appropriate behavior and respect for elders indemeanor and gender roles.

Second, childrens personalities and minds areunderstood as reflections of the cultural themes as wellas the anxieties children grow up with (such as in thework in Bali of Bateson and Mead 1942). The focus ison the semiotics and communication of culturalmeanings to children, on how these cultural patternsare absorbed and internalized, in turn reproducing themeanings as well as neurotic obsessions of theirparents cultures.

Third, the psychocultural, or personality integrationmodel (Whiting and Whiting 1975), begins with theclimate, history, and ecology of a community, whichshapes child-care practices, which in turn producepsychological effects on children, effects produced bydirect social learning as well as by psychodynamicprocesses shaping personality and defenses in children.

These children become adults who then project intomyths, rituals, art, and other forms (including in turntheir own practices as parents) the learned patterns aswell as intrapsychic conflicts produced in childhoodand shared by others in their community. Childrenand adults alike have universal needs of the self

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hunger for recognition, reward, and material andbodily satisfactionto which cultures respondthrough the cultural careers made available to childrenin a community (Goldschmidt 1990). Culture inevi-tablythwartsthesehungers,leadingtointrapsychicandcultural conflicts. Melford Spiro used psychodynamicand sociocultural approaches to understand the ideo-logical, political, and ecological reasons for andconsequences of the care of children by designated

community caretakers, or metapelets, in socialist-inspired agricultural collective groups in Israel (Spiro1975).

Fourth, anthropologists study the developmentalniche of childhood: everyday physicalsocial settings,cultural customs of care, and the psychology of thecaretakers as shaped by their cultural models ofparenthood that direct behavior (the goals, meanings,and rationales for parenting and being a child)(Harkness and Super 1996). Parenting of children alsois shaped by the organic hardware given by ourcommon mammalian heritage, and by socioeconomicconditions in the community. Children experienceculture as it is practiced within their familys dailyroutine of cultural life. Cultural routines consist of

activities children engage in (mealtimes, bedtimes,family visits, chores, going to church, school, play,etc.) Activities are the primary mechanisms bringingculture to and into the mind of the child. Activitiesconsist of goals and values; tasks of an activity; thescripts for how to engage in that activity; the peoplepresent and participating in the activity; and themotives and feelings of those involved (Weisner 1996).

Finally, some anthropologists view childhood itselfas a cultural construction shaped by forces within aswell as outside a single cultural community. The veryidea of what a child or parent is, in this view, is morethe outcome of processes of power in an increasinglyglobal political economy, in which children as well asparents, are constructed or positioned by theseagents of power (Stephens 1995).

3. Some Cultural Influences on ChildrensDeelopment

3.1 Cultural Scale and Complexity

Children in more complex societies (with occupationalspecialization, an extensive market economy, a nucl-eated settlement pattern, centralized and hierarchicalpolitical and legal system, and a centralized religiouspriesthood) are more likely to seek help and assistance

from others, to try and dominate or control others,and to be more egoistic. Children in less complexsocieties are more likely to show nurturancetoward other children (to offer assistance and respondto their requests), be more responsible, make moreresponsible suggestions to others, and do more tasks

required for family and community survival. Motherswho have heavy subsistence workloads are more likelyto expect responsible work from children and usestricter discipline. Children living in extended, joint, orexpanded households and family systems are moreoften involved in directive, aggressive interactions,while children living in smaller nuclear families aremore often engaged in sociable and intimate inter-actions with parents and others, and fathers are more

involved with children. Of course children and adultseverywhere are nurturant, seek help, or are aggressive.These patterns only reflect the modal tendencies ofcommunities, not a rigid uniformity within them(Whiting and Edwards 1988).

3.2 Gender Differences

Gender differences in childrens development arerecognized and shaped by all cultures (Ember 1981).Of five kinds of interpersonal behavior in childrenaged from three to 11nurturance, dependency,prosocial dominance, egoistic dominance, and soci-abilitygirls on average were more likely than boys to

be nurturing toward others, while boys were morelikely to be egoistically dominant and aggressive thangirls. Play styles and types vary by gender (girls aremore likely to do work-play and to do so nearer theirhomes, for instance). Women and girls do mostmothering of children well into the juvenile period inmost cultures, so girls experience care by their ownsex, while boys do not, leading to differences in earlygender identification, and psychosocial and self-development. Peer groups have a tendency to segreg-ate by gender, and children prefer same-sex childrento interact with. Cultures with more mixed-age andmixed-gender groups around children are likely tohave less sex-segregated roles for children. Individualdifferences among boys and girls, even within comm-unities where there are strong overall gender diff-erences, are usually substantial.

Father roles are recognized in all societies. Fathersseldom are involved in direct care of infants and youngchildren but fathers do have complementary nurturingand affiliative roles, and are more involved in econ-omic, protective, and didactic child training. In a studyof 80 preindustrial societies, fathers were more prox-imate and involved with young children in mono-gamous, nuclear-family, and nonpatrilocal situations,and wherever mothers make relatively large contri-butions to family subsistence. Father involvement isrelated to sociocultural evolution: foraging societiesreport more father participation in childcare, while

horticultural, agrarianpeasant, and pastoral tend tohave less. There is an upswing in contemporarysocieties in encouraging paternal care. The culturalbeliefs about gender (how womens as well as mensroles are defined by parenting), as well as the ability offathers to provide consistently for their children,

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influence father involvements. Poverty and uncertaineconomic life, or migration and dislocation, candrastically change father as well as mother involve-ment in patterns of childcare.

3.3 Emotional Deelopment

Emotional development in childhood is influenced bycultural expectations at each developmental stage

about the kinds of demeanor expected. A child shouldshow that heshe is a certain kind of cultural personwith an appropriate self and identity. Cultural mana-gement of emotion relies on what Robert Levy (1973)called redundant cultural control. Tahitians (Levy1973), for example, as well as many Pacific Island,Asian and other cultures, expect children to be calm,gentle, and quiet in demeanor (except for an extendedperiod of adolescence and youth calledtaureareainTahiti, in which adventures, autonomy, rebellion, andaggressiveness are culturally expected and common).Redundant community management of gentlenessincludes many beliefs and practices: children aresomewhat distanced from their mothers and fathersafter infancy and live with peers; socialization net-

works arediffuse, meaning that affect towards others isdiffused; severe anger is strongly discouraged whilemild transient episodes are tolerated; threats arecommon while actual aggression towards children isnot; accidents are reinterpreted as punishment byspirits for aggression and this is widely believed to betrue; there can be magical retaliation for serious anger;and it is generally shameful to show lack of control. Aculture complex of many interrelated beliefs andpractices of this kind is a strong sign that someemotional pattern or competence in children is ofadaptive and moral importance to a society.

3.4 Basic Trust and Attachment

Basic trust and attachment are fundamental in chil-dhood in all cultures. Anthropological studies showthat a wide range of family and parenting practices canproduce close affiliation and trusting attachments inchildren. Successful attachment does not depend ononly one kind of maternal care in nuclear families, nora specific kind of infant and toddler behavioral style.Although the individual child is named and recognizedeverywhere, individualism and egoistic autonomy asgoals are not at all universal; rather, sociocentric andinterdependent self-development are common ideals(Shweder and Bourne 1991). Chisholm (1999) prop-oses an evolutionary developmental hypothesis rega-rding trust and attachment. Environments varied

during the long course of evolution. Less threatening,more favorable material and social conditions led togreater investment in fewer children, and so encour-aged closer attachments to one or a few caregivers.Unfavorable conditions encouraged what are calledinsecure or avoidantambivalent infant and child

attachments, since in threatening, insecure conditionsthat was the more adaptive, successful parental andchild response likely to increase the chances of childrenreaching reproductive age. Most cultures providemultiple caretakers to children, not a single person,and care is socially distributed. Indeed, living anentire childhood exclusively in ones natal home maywell be the exception around the world. Older siblingsand cousins are widely used as caretakers. Extended

families in village and agrarian-based societies havehigh levels of multiple care of children. In India andelsewhere in Southeast Asia, for instance, there is anintense, relational, childhood experience with severalmaternal figures, a pattern found widely acrosscultures (Weisner and Gallimore 1977).

3.5 Deelopmental Goals

Anthropology does not assume that competenciesvalued in Western communities (verbal skills, cogn-itive abilities, or signs of egocentric autonomy of theself, for instance), are necessarily meaningful childdevelopmental outcomes elsewhere, although all cul-

tures are concerned over some version of good com-munication, mental ability, and self- and personhood.LeVine et al. (1994) contrast pedagogical goals (cog-nitive and social stimulation to prepare children forliteracy and schools, as well as for an individualisticand autonomous self- and personhood away fromtheir natal home) and pediatric goals (concern forsurvival, health, and physical growth of infants, andsubsequent responsible engagement in family subsi-stence and continuity), comparing families in Boston,USA and the Gusii of western Kenya. Many parentsand cultures have mixed goals, and are ambivalentabout the constantly changing requirements forchildhood. Anthropology has a unique point of viewregarding the goals for a good childhood: the pro-

duction of cultural well-being in children. Well-beingis more than physical health or the attainment of skillsand competence, or of successful subsequent re-production, important as these are. Well-being is theability of a child to engage and participate in theactivities deemed desirable by a cultural community,and the psychological experiences that go along withthat participation.

4. The Acquisition of Culture

Theroles andsettings in which children acquire culturematter for when and how children learn. Children areapprentices to more experienced community members

in doing important tasks, and this apprenticeshipsituation is a powerful learning experience for chil-dren. Play and work blend in childhood learning.Imaginative, fantasy, toy, physical, and motoric play(including organized sports with rules) varies accord-ing to whether adults encourage it, whether it is

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considered beneficial for children by adults because itenhances desired competencies or societies develop-mental goals (such as cognitive and school-likeactivities in many contemporary cultures), andwhether childrens sheer inventiveness, creativity, andexuberance take over. The Kpelle of Liberia havechildren playing on the mother-ground, or openpublic spaces where children can observe, lurk nearby,and imitate adults going about their activities in an

agrarian village community. Formal schooling andthe outside world of employment and the nation-state contrast sharply with this mother-ground ofchildhood. Anthropological studies of schooling findstriking differences in the culture of classrooms aroundthe world, including different teaching practices andstudent expectations. Cultures vary in the moral andcultural curriculum accompanying literacy and othertraining, classroom and peer norms, gender, and classcircumstances mirrored in school practices, and dailyroutines of school (Tobin et al. 1989). Participation inceremonies and rituals at times of baptism, birthdays,naming ceremonies, puberty, and marriage also arepowerful influences on childrens acquisition of cult-ural knowledge. Such ceremonies crystallize cultural

beliefs and practices; they intensify emotionally, poli-tically, and socially salient key concerns that parentsand communities have about childhood, and elevatethe goals the community shares for children andparents (Turner, 1967).

Multiple cultural and mental processes are involvedin culture acquisition. However, the relative impor-tance of different mental and cultural mechanisms foremotional, social, or cognitive learning is currently notwell understood in anthropology. Evolved tendenciesof the mind prepare children to understand the worldin certain ways. For example, children in widelydisparate cultural communities seem to share unde-rstandings about what living things are like and howthey behave and think (Hirschfeld and Gelman 1994).Psychodynamic processes transform emotionally sali-ent cultural information. Stories and narratives embedcultural knowledge, shape recall, and organize culturalknowledge into sequences with shared local meaning.Sociolinguistic studies of child language acquisitionshow wide variations in how and when parents talk totheir children, and view language learning as em-bedded in interactional routines shaped by culturalpractices, with children as active learners (Schieffelinand Ochs 1986). Cultural knowledge is availableto and used by children in the form of cultural modelsand schemas for how to comprehend and act in theworld. Neither children nor parents generally knowthat they know most cultural knowledge, and it is not

usually in conscious awareness, even as they act inaccord with their cultures beliefs. Cultural beliefs andpractices have powerful directive force in guidingchild behavior and child socialization in part becauseof this shared, implicit, everyday understanding putinto action (DAndrade 1995).

5. Anthropological Methods and the Study ofChildren

Anthropological methods for the study of childreninclude ethnography and participant observation(Weisner 1996). These methods fit with the anthro-pological concept of childhoods lived in culturalpathways in naturalistic settings. Systematic obser-vational procedures, field guides for comparative

studies, and special procedures for sampling childrensactivities and time use enhance ethnography (Munroeand Munroe 1994). Anthropologists also use assess-ments standard in child development for comparingphysical growth, and the cognitive and socioemotionallife of children, often revising these to insure thatculturally appropriate procedures and meaningfuloutcomes are being measured. Film and video recordsof childhood are invaluable for comparative studies ofcultural activities, emotional expression, holding pat-terns, or gaze and attention.

6. Anthropology and the Study of Childhood inthe Twenty-first Century

Anthropology has always been concerned with theexperience and the cultural worlds of minorities, thepoor andnon-literate, andof those,including children,who are so often unable to give voice to and representtheir own world. Life histories and autobiographicalaccounts have provided rich data, as in the classicNisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman (Shostak1981). Scheper-Hughes (1992) describes infants andyoung children in deeply impoverished politicaleconomic circumstances in urban northeastern Brazil,circumstances leading to high infant and child mor-tality, and anger and despair among parents (andanthropologists). Anthropological studies of African-American families and economically downwardlymobile families in the USA demonstrate how some(but not all) can rely on extended kin in their struggleswith poverty. Anthropological studies of childhooddisability and deviance find greater acceptance andsocial integration of children with physical and cog-nitive disabilities in many communities, as long aschildren are able to live as sufficiently cultural personsin their communities and are not violent or dangerousto others (Ingstad and Whyte 1995). Anthropologistsare concerned with children at risk around the globe,including, for example, children under stress fromacademic examinations in Japan and Korea, immi-grant children in Europe and elsewhere, street chil-

dren, or children facing change in East Africa. Childsexual and physical abuse around the world is now arecognized concern for anthropologists. Cultural be-liefs and practices regarding appropriate disciplineand treatment of children clearly do vary widely, andWestern notions of abuse are not universal. However,

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repeated and unchecked physical aggression, or in-trafamilial sexual relations between close kin andchildren are nowhere defined as normative and acce-ptable (Korbin 1981). Anthropologists are concernedwith childrens rights, recognizing their vulnerablestatus and the lack of provision of basic protectionsfor children (Cultural Surial Quarterly). Worldyouth cultures are growing in importance due to theinfluence of the Internet and mass communications

around the world. These are all topics for the anthro-pology of childhood in the twenty-first century.However, the comparative study of powerful local andregional cultural differences in parenting, childhood,and family life across populations around the worldwill continue to provide enduring scientific questionsfor anthropology.

Seealso: Adolescent Development, Theories of; Child-hood Health; Children and the Law; Gender-relatedDevelopment; Infancy and Childhood: EmotionalDevelopment; Life Course in History; Life Course:Sociological Aspects; Trust, Sociology of; YouthCulture, Anthropology of; Youth Culture, Sociologyof

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T. S. Weisner

Childhood Cancer: Psychological Aspects

Substantial progress in medical anticancer treatment

(chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery, bone-marrowtransplantation) has improved dramatically the long-term survival rates of children and adolescents withthe diagnosis of cancer (malignant tumors, lymph-omas, and leukemias). Some decades ago, the essentialthreat for the family was to face the death and loss of

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Childhood Cancer: Psychological Aspects

Copyright 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences ISBN: 0-08-043076-7

weisner - childhood. anthropological aspects

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