The anthropology of childhood
by David F. Lancy · first published 2008
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"How are children raised in different cultures? What is the role of children in society? How are families and communities structured around them? Now available in a revised edition, this book sets out to answer these questions, and argues that our common understandings about children are narrowly culture-bound. Enriched with anecdotes from ethnography and the daily media, the book examines family structure, reproduction, profiles of children's caretakers within family or community, their treatment at different ages, their play, work, schooling, and transition to adulthood. The result is a nuan
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If you want to learn more about this David F. Lancy's book, The Anthropology of Childhood, is excellent. Very short version Children everywhere desperately want to be helpful, to be productive members of society with a useful role. They learn what to do and how to do it with very, very little…
on “Are kids helpful and, if so why?” ↗…good at, and language helps a lot but teaching isn’t even a universal in human societies. Watching and learning with occasional, minimal correction is. Anyone who wants to learn more should read The Anthropology of Childhood by David F. Lance.
on “Gen Z never learned to read cursive” ↗Take a look at David Lancy's The Anthropology of Childhood; he describes in extensive, verging on exhaustive, detail precisely what you're saying. I just read it and wrote much more about the book here: http://jakeseliger.com/2015/03/05/thoughts-on-the-anthropolo....
on “I Gave My Child Autism” ↗There is no "only" book, but The Anthropology of Childhood could be one choice. https://jakeseliger.com/2015/03/05/thoughts-on-the-anthropol...
on “Ask HN: I just became a father, what is the only book I should read?” ↗So does The Anthropology of Childhood, which is a fun book: https://jakeseliger.com/2015/02/10/the-anthropology-of-child....
on “Hunter-gatherer childcare suggests new key to mother and child well-being” ↗I suggest you read David F. Lancy’s Anthropology of Childhood. If children were as stupid as you suggest none of them would make it through childhood. No parent can watch even one child all the time and it’s possible to kill your self getting out of bed. > “Perhaps…
on “ChuChu TV is responsible for widely-viewed toddler content on YouTube” ↗Sorry, I meant "Anthropology of Childhood" by David F. Lancy
on “On the Wildness of Children” ↗…civilizations had tutors or schools for those expected to do non-simple work (read not poor). No reference to age, claims that all non simple skills were learned from tutors or schools. If you read Anthropology of Childhood hunter gatherers really don’t do explicit instruction in anything resembling structured lesssons, ever. Children and adolescents watch, imitate, beg to be left to do things and occasionally get maybe…
on “Are kids helpful and, if so why?” ↗The Anthropology of Childhood [0] has circulated in the blogosphere. These notes on LessWrong were interesting [1]. [0] https://www.amazon.com/Anthropology-Childhood-Cherubs-Chatte... [1] https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/vwM7hnT9ysE3suwfk/notes-on-t...
on “We are sending more foster kids to prison than to college” ↗…Younger children were incapable of timing that first step as precisely as adults, which in effect gave them less time to cross the street before the next car arrived." Your quote from David F. Lancy’s Anthropology of Childhood is an anecdote. Was there a study done to measure child mortality and injury in this community? Would it be acceptable by modern standards? My dad was raised in an eastern European village in the 1950s.…
on “ChuChu TV is responsible for widely-viewed toddler content on YouTube” ↗