November 22, 2013

"Priceless but Useless" — Children of the Anthropocene

Published by Wednesday Martin

In the industrialized West children are “priceless but useless.” We value them but don’t expect them to contribute to the household in any real way. Mine were surprised when I told them to rake the backyard.

In most cultures, children spend their days in multi-age groups of other children, who act as their caretakers, native guides and teachers. Adults are almost always close at hand, working.

Western childhood is characterized by increased formalized education and play, and decreased responsibility. Children are sequestered in same-age groups, away from the rest of society. We call it school.

We presume mothers are “naturally” the primary caretakers and principal companions of their young children. Wrong! World-wide it’s kids and grandmothers raising kids ages one and up

Mothering is an intensive and potentially depleting endeavor in cultures where women disperse from their natal groups and live far from sisters, mothers and grandmothers. The tribe I study hires helpers/alloparents

The tribe I study places a high value on early literacy and encourages children to draw, paint and write rather than work in the household. In other cultures children often watch younger children and tend to livestock

Portrait of a mother by her young daughter, UWS of Manhattan

Perhaps more than anywhere else in the US, parents in the tribe I study are able to invest heavily in each and every child. This mother and daughter attended a fashion event together. The child is exquisitely dressed.

Developmentalist Jean Piaget famously observed that "play is the work of children." But in some places, work is the work of children. And that's not a bad thing.

In her wonderful book Kids: How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Raise Young Children, anthropologist Meredith Smalls synthesizes and interprets the ethnographic data on childhood, interspersing it with her own personal narrative of being a mother in Ithaca, New York. In the industrialized West, she and other anthropologists note, childhood is a time of minimal responsibility, increased play time and formalized education. We are pretty righteous in our belief that it's the best thing to do and "what children need." A professional caste of childhood experts — developmental psychologists, parenting journalists, pediatricians, educators — reenforces our convictions.

But from a cross-cultural perspective, the way we do childhood is an anomaly. You could even say it's wrong...

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"Priceless but Useless" — Children of the Anthropocene