A World of Babies: Imagined Childcare Guides for Seven SocietiesAre babies divine, or do they have the devil in them? Should parents talk to their infants, or is it a waste of time? Answers to questions about the nature and nurture of infants appear in this book as advice to parents in seven world societies. Imagine what Dr. Spock might have written if he were a healer from Bali...or an Aboriginal grandmother from the Australian desert...or a diviner from a rural village in West Africa. As the seven "child care manuals" in this book reveal, experts worldwide offer intriguingly different advice to new parents. A World of Babies brings alive infant care practices around the world in the form of baby and child care manuals "written" by members of seven real societies. The information, while presented in an imaginative fictive format, is based on extensive research by anthropologists, psychologists, and historians. Encountering fascinating facts about how people in other societies view and raise their babies, readers may be led to see the beliefs and practices of their own society from a new perspective. The creative format of this book brings alive a rich fund of ethnographic knowledge, vividly illustrating a simple but powerful truth: there exist many models of babyhood, each shaped by deeply held values and widely varying cultural contexts. After reading this book, you will never again view child-rearing as a matter of "common sense." Judy DeLoache is Professor of Psychology at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Alma Gottlieb is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. |
Contents
If Dr Spock Were Born in Bali Raising a World of Babies | 1 |
A Parenting Manual with Words of Advice for Puritan Mothers | 29 |
Luring Your Child Into This Life A Beng Path for Infant Care | 55 |
Gift from the Gods A Balinese Guide to Early Child Rearing | 91 |
Making Babies in a Turkish Village | 117 |
Infants of the Dreaming A Warlpiri Guide to Child Care | 145 |
The View from the Wuro A Guide to Child Rearing for Fulani Parents | 171 |
Other editions - View all
A World of Babies: Imagined Childcare Guides for Seven Societies Judy S. DeLoache,Alma Gottlieb No preview available - 2000 |
A World of Babies: Imagined Childcare Guides for Seven Societies Judy S. DeLoache,Alma Gottlieb No preview available - 2000 |
A World of Babies: Imagined Childcare Guides for Seven Societies Judy S. DeLoache,Alma Gottlieb No preview available - 2000 |
Common terms and phrases
Aboriginal adopt adults advice Africa Alma Gottlieb ancestors anthropologist atoll Australian baby baby's Bali balian Balinese bath bayu become pregnant begin behavior belly Beng Benjamin Spock Berry Brazelton birth house born boys breast breastfeed breastfeeding breastmilk cattle ceremony chapter child rearing childbirth childcare circumcision cloth co-sleeping co-wives crying cultural daughter emotions especially father feel fetus Fulani girls give birth grandmother groups husband Ifaluk important infant Jerome Bruner land language leave leyak living male manual married medicines Micronesia midwife milk mother Muslim newborn Nowadays nurse offer older parents person Philip Graham placenta Plate practices pregnancy protect Puritan Qur'anic relatives ritual seven societies sick sleep social societies someone spirits taboo teach umbilical cord University village walk Warlpiri wash wean wet nurse witches woman womb women wrugbe wuro yalus young children