Unlocking potential with the best learning and research solutions

Child Care and Culture
Lessons from Africa

Authors:
Robert A. Levine, Harvard University, Massachusetts
Sarah Levine, University of California, San Diego
Suzanne Dixon, Harvard University, Massachusetts
Amy Richman, Work-Family Directions, Inc.
P. Herbert Leiderman, Stanford University School of Medicine, California
Constance H. Keefer, Harvard Medical School
T. Berry Brazelton, Harvard School of Public Health, Massachusetts

Date Published: September 1996
availability: Available
format: Paperback
isbn: 9780521575461

Rate & review

Paperback

Add to wishlist

Other available formats:
eBook

Looking for an examination copy?

This title is not currently available for examination. However, if you are interested in the title for your course we can consider offering an examination copy. To register your interest please contact [email protected] providing details of the course you are teaching.

Description

Contents

Resources

Courses

About the Authors

Child Care and Culture examines parenthood, infancy, and early childhood in an African community, revealing patterns unanticipated by current theories of child development and raising provocative questions about the concept of "normal" child care. Comparing the Gusii people of Kenya with the American white middle class, the authors show how divergent cultural priorities create differing conditions for early childhood development. Combining the perspectives of social anthropology, pediatrics, and developmental psychology, the authors demonstrate how child care customs can be responsive to varied socioeconomic, demographic, and cultural conditions without inflicting harm on children. This text will be of interest to researchers in child development and anthropology.
- LeVine is reknowned psychological anthropologist
- Offers a compelling look at practices of parenthood and infant care in other cultures
- Highly topical subject, a great deal of interest in children, and how they are raised
Read more
Reviews & endorsements
"Child Care and Culture provides an outstanding model for how to bring population-level cultural or ethnic variation into the study of parenting and human development not only in far-off places like Africa, but everywhere." Thomas S. Weisner, Contemporary Psychology
"This book presents not only a wealth of investigation and description about infancy in East Africa, but raises questions about the very foundations of human consciousness...Child Care and Culture provides an interesting and provocative look at American theories in contrast with Gusii practices, and expands concepts of the meaning of early human experience to life in each society." The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease
"This well-written and engaging book provides a glimpse into this world and how it has changed over the past 40 years....Child Care and Culture is a valuable and provocative book. It describes an important project and raises interesting questions about the nature and course of human development. Finally, the authors are to be commended for conducting a project that has contributed in both scholarly and humanitarian ways." Mary Gauvain, Mind, Culture, and Activity
"Child Care and Culture provides an outsatnding model for how to bring population-level cultural or ethnic variation into the study of parenting and human development..." Thomas S. Weisner, Contemporary Psychology
See more reviews
Customer reviews

Not yet reviewed
Be the first to review

Log in to review

Review was not posted due to profanity
×

, create a review

(If you're not , sign out)

Please enter the right captcha value

Please enter a star rating.

Your review must be a minimum of 12 words.

How do you rate this item?

Reviews must contain at least 12 words about the product.

×

Product details
- Date Published: September 1996
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9780521575461
- length: 380 pages
- dimensions: 231 x 155 x 19 mm
- weight: 0.529kg
- contains: 45 b/w illus. 1 map
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
Foreword
List of tables and figures
Preface
Part I. African Infancy: Frameworks For Understanding:
1. The comparative study of child care
2. Infant care in subsaharan Africa
Part II. Parenthood Among The Gusii of Kenya:
3. Gusii culture: A person-centered perspective
4. Gusii fertility, marriage, and family
5. Pregnancy and birth: Part III. Infant Care and Development in a Gusii Community:
6. Infant care: Cultural norms and interpersonal environment
7. Survival and health: The priorities of parents
8. Communication and social learning during infancy
9. Variations in infant interaction: Illustrative cases: Part IV. Interpretations:
10. Early child development in an African context: Comparative lessons
Appendices
References.
Look Inside
Authors
Robert A. Levine, Harvard University, Massachusetts
Sarah Levine, University of California, San Diego
Suzanne Dixon, Harvard University, Massachusetts
Amy Richman, Work-Family Directions, Inc.
P. Herbert Leiderman, Stanford University School of Medicine, California
Constance H. Keefer, Harvard Medical School
T. Berry Brazelton, Harvard School of Public Health, Massachusetts