OFFICIAL BLOG

Fieldnotes

The World's Best Dads....

Published by Wednesday Martin

If you look to the Aka people, foragers of Central Congo, the bar is pretty high on Father's Day. The Aka are known among anthropologists as "the best fathers in the world." During his fieldwork among the Aka, anthropologist Barry Hewlett learned that Aka dads are highly involved with their children:

— they are within arm's reach of their infants 50% of the time

— they are present/in view of the baby 88% of the time

— they hold their babies and children five times more than fathers in other cultures

American fathers hold their infants an average of ten to twenty minutes per day — the Aka hold theirs an hour per day and 25% of the time after sundown!

Aka fathers frequently hang out together drinking palm wine — while holding their babies. Dads offer their nipples to their fussing babies. Hewlitt attributes this increased paternal involvement to the fabric of Aka society itself. Husbands and wives hunt together, cooperating to an extraordinary extent and spending most of their waking and sleeping hours in close physical proximity. The more physically distant the husband-wife relationship, anthropologists tell us, the less time men spend with their babies and children.

Further reading:

The Cultural Nexus of Aka Father-Infant Bonding by Barry Hewlett

Intimate Fathers: the Nature and Context of Aka Pygmy Paternal Infant Care by Barry Hewlett