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.
David F. Lancy is professor of anthropology at Utah State University. John Bock is professor of anthropology at California State University, Fullerton. Suzanne Gaskins is professor of psychology at Northeastern Illinois University.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1. Putting Learning in ContextChapter 2. An Evolutionary Perspective on Learning in Social, Cultural, and Ecological ContextChapter 3. The Cross-Cultural Study of Children's Learning and Socialization: A Short HistoryChapter 4. Parental Ethnotheories of Children's LearningChapter 5. Learning through Observation in Daily LifeChapter 6. Work, Play, and LearningChapter 7. The Role of Adults in Children's LearningChapter 8. Learning from Other ChildrenChapter 9. Learning in SchoolsChapter 10. Learning Communicative CompetenceChapter 11. Learning MoralityChapter 12. Learning Gender RolesChapter 13. Skill Learning For Survival in Non-Human PrimatesChapter 14. Learning the EnvironmentChapter 15. Learning to HuntChapter 16. Learning In and From the PastChapter 17. Learning on the Streets: Peer Socialization in Adverse EnvironmentsChapter 18. Children's Learning in New Settings