Book cover of The Anthropology of Childhood

Book description

The raising of children, their role in society, and the degree to which family and community is structured around them, varies quite significantly around the world. The Anthropology of Childhood provides the first comprehensive review of the literature on children from a distinctly anthropological perspective. Bringing together key evidence from…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Anthropology of Childhood as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I love this book because I learn something new each time I open it. And I've opened it hundreds of times.

I love the boundless information here about how human societies, across time and space, have created concepts of the child and childhood, which always intertwine with ideas and practices about learning. Almost nowhere has it ever looked like the familiar-to-us “WEIRD” (Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich, Democratic) societies that are usually used to represent “human nature.” In fact, each time I read anything in this book, our own social and cultural practices look stranger and stranger.

This book gives me…

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