The Anthropology of Learning in Childhood

Edited by David F. Lancy, John Bock, Suzanne Gaskins

Not available to order

Publication date:

15 January 2010

Length of book:

410 pages

Publisher

AltaMira Press

ISBN-13: 9780759113244

The Anthropology of Learning in Childhood offers a large, mural-like portrait of childhood across time, culture, species, and environment. Even a casual reading of the literature on childhood will persuade one that learning is a very important topic that commands the attention of tens of thousands of scholars and practitioners. Yet, anthropological research on children has exerted relatively little influence on this community. This book will change that. The book demonstrates that anthropologists studying childhood can offer a description and theoretically sophisticated account of children's learning and its role in their development, socialization, and enculturation. Further, it demonstrates the particular contribution that children's learning makes to the construction of society and culture as well as the role that culture-acquiring children play in human evolution. Chapters have been contributed in archaeology, primatology, biological and cultural anthropology, and cross-cultural psychology.

Chapter 1
Chapter 1. Putting Learning in Context
Chapter 2
Chapter 2. An Evolutionary Perspective on Learning in Social, Cultural, and Ecological Context
Chapter 3
Chapter 3. The Cross-Cultural Study of Children's Learning and Socialization: A Short History
Chapter 4
Chapter 4. Parental Ethnotheories of Children's Learning
Chapter 5
Chapter 5. Learning through Observation in Daily Life
Chapter 6
Chapter 6. Work, Play, and Learning
Chapter 7
Chapter 7. The Role of Adults in Children's Learning
Chapter 8
Chapter 8. Learning from Other Children
Chapter 9
Chapter 9. Learning in Schools
Chapter 10
Chapter 10. Learning Communicative Competence
Chapter 11
Chapter 11. Learning Morality
Chapter 12
Chapter 12. Learning Gender Roles
Chapter 13
Chapter 13. Skill Learning For Survival in Non-Human Primates
Chapter 14
Chapter 14. Learning the Environment
Chapter 15
Chapter 15. Learning to Hunt
Chapter 16
Chapter 16. Learning In and From the Past
Chapter 17
Chapter 17. Learning on the Streets: Peer Socialization in Adverse Environments
Chapter 18
Chapter 18. Children's Learning in New Settings

A fascinating collection of anthropological accounts of children's learning in context. From archaeology to evolutionary biology, from primate routines to identity construction, from pottery-making to street crime, this book brings to light the mundane and the extraordinary in children's experiences of learning culture across time and space. It challenges the reader to focus on the real conditions of contemporary children's lives....