Child Care and Culture

Child Care and Culture examines parenthood, infancy, and early childhood in an African community, raising provocative questions about "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.

Gusii mothers, who bear ten children on average, focus on goals of survival during infancy and compliance during early childhood, following a cultural model of maternal behavior for achieving these goals. Their practices are successful in a local context but diverge sharply from those considered normal or optimal in North America and Europe, especially in terms of cognitive stimulation, social engagement, emotional arousal, verbal responsiveness, and emotional support for exploration and conversation.

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.