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From Amazon
How we raise our children differs greatly from society to society, with many cultures responding differently to such questions as how a parent should respond to a crying child, how often a baby should be nursed, and at what age a child should learn to sleep alone. Ethnopediatrics--the study of parents, children, and child rearing across cultures--is the subject of anthropologist Meredith F. Small's thorough and fascinating book Our Babies, Ourselves.
Small asserts that our ideas about how to raise our kids are as much a result of our culture as our biology, and that, in fact, many of the values we place on child-rearing practices are based in culture rather than biology. Small writes, "Every act by parents, every goal that molds that act, has a foundation in what is appropriate for that particular culture. In this sense, no parenting style is 'right' and no style is 'wrong.' It is appropriate or inappropriate only according to the culture." Our Babies, Ourselves is a wonderful read for anyone interested in the social sciences, and will be especially meaningful to those swept up in the wild adventure of parenting. --Ericka Lutz --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
In this thoroughly researched and well-referenced book, anthropology professor Small (What's Love Got To Do with It, LJ 9/15/95) explores ethnopediatrics, an interdisciplinary science that combines anthropology, pediatrics, and child development research in order to examine how child-rearing styles across cultures affect the health and survival of infants. Small describes the different parenting styles of several cultures, including (but not limited to) the nomadic Ache tribe of Paraguay, the agrarian !Kung San society of the Kalahari Desert in Africa, and the American industrialized society. In discussing these societies, she illustrates that although there are numerous ways to care for babies, some cultural norms of care are actually at odds with the way infants have evolved. Thus, parents should expect "trade-offs" when they act in opposition to how babies are designed. Small speculates that the custom of mothers in industrialized nations to wean early or not to breastfeed at all may be responsible for the higher incidence of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, more medical problems and fatalities, and more crying than is commonly noted in babies of more agrarian societies. She urges parents to recognize that although their native culture does have an impact on their parenting, they can adopt aspects of child rearing from other cultures, if they choose. Highly recommended for all anthropology and child development collections and appropriate for general audiences as well.?Ximena Chrisagis, Wright State Univ Libs., Dayton, OH
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good book, but needs a bit better research,
By
This review is from: Our Babies, Ourselves: How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Parent (Paperback)
This is a very good book, and it offers an excellent insight into how parenting practices differ around the world. It also offers some reasons for why, and the outcomes of different parenting practices. I have three main comments:1- Most importantly, a lot has happened since this book was published. The study of parenting marches on, and there is much more evidence to support some claims, refute others. So if I gave it to a parent who wanted my advice, I'd offer it with a grain of salt. In some cases, she has the annoying tendency to make a sweeping generalization, only to prove it false with her own example a paragraph later. So this isn't the most rigorous book on parenting out there. 2- Parenting does differ across cultures, and I really like how she has emphasized that different parenting styles are matched to different cultures. That's a critical point that I try to convey to parents- there are common, standard ways of parenting, but you have to tailor your parenting to your own situation. That said, it raises the Holy Grail in parenting research- are there ways of parenting that are generally better than others? This is the million dollar question. And we know few things about it. All I would say is that love, and perhaps breastfeeding, are the only two parenting practices that are universally beneficial. Even then, some mothers can't breastfeed and shouldn't be made to feel inferior for that, as children can certainly develop normally on formula. 3- I wish she was a little more cautionary with her advice. I appreciate that she is trying to challenge Western paradigms that are (for the most part) arcane and way out of touch with the way babies are meant to be raised, but that's not an easy argument to sell. Present it a little more skeptically, and perhaps you give parents the chance to reason through the arguments themselves. Then again, I don't write popular books for parents, so I don't know. Overall, I think this is a good book for parents. For scholars, it's a little light (good for undergraduates), but still a good summary of the area in general.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Open-minded Parenting,
By
This review is from: Our Babies, Ourselves: How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Parent (Paperback)
I love this book. My best friend gave it to me when I became pregnant, and I am now only reading it (my baby is now 13 months). Against family and most friend's advise, we co-slept with our daughter for the first year, and only stopped because we weren't getting any of our own sleep (waking three times a night for feeding, plus accomodating our 25 pound daughter in our bed). This book confirms what my heart has been telling me all along, all with sound research. I am not spoiling my baby, only giving her the things she tells me she needs. Just because all my neighbors are raising their babies one way, does not mean we all have to do it the same. And reading how other cultures are raising their babies really is eye opening. If you need a refreshing, open-minded reference on baby-rearing, this is the book for you.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Compelling... you will rethink western parenting strategies,
By A Customer
This review is from: Our Babies, Ourselves: How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Parent (Paperback)
An amazing book, I cannot put down. Anyone who reads this book will definately rethink western, specifically american, ways of infant caregiving. Small forces one to rethink the ways we provide infant care, by making us diferentiate what we do as a biological dance with an infant to what we do as forced cultural constraints. A good overview of the research that is out there... makes one understand the biological necessity of co-sleep, carrying, and breast feeding.Anyone who reads this book and then buys a crib, bottle feeds, or puts their child on a strict regime was, in my opinon, obviously not paying attention.
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