Individuals, Generations, and Dynamic Cultural Communities

Individuals, Generations, and Dynamic Cultural Communities Chapter 3

Conceptualizing the Role of Culture • Cultural vs. Biological • Similarities vs. Differences • Dynamic spiral process vs. static properties

Breast Feeding as a Function of Culture • Frequency and occurrence • Perceptions of necessity • Outcomes for children • Age of weaning ranged from 6 months to 5 ½ years in a worldwide sample of 52 societies (Sears & Wise, 1950, reported in Rogoff, 2003) • While older children tend to naturally wean themselves, premature weaning seem to lead to stress on children

Child Birthing Practices Across Cultures • Labor and delivery process • Use of technology and drugs • Variations in her position (sitting, squatting) • The kind of support she receives (hospital, home, Lamas) • Outcomes of children (i.e., Cesarean section) may contribute to children being born with genetic properties that would not have occurred under culturally different circumstances. • Consequently, genetic properties may be passed which might not have occurred without the technology or technique

Infant Sleeping and Breathing Patterns • In U.S., the goal is for children to sleep for 8 hours by 4 to 6 months • Some researchers speculate that encouraging infants to sleep all night may strain their immature neurological system to maintain itself over long sleep periods • In other cultures, infants wake and feed about every four hours around the clock for the first 8 months of life • Some research suggest that if infants sleep beside someone rather than alone, their breathing may be supported

Are infants born ready to learn? • Humans have a long period of infancy • Other animal species are born capable to do things humans require time to execute • Around the world, infants’ babbling has the same sounds up to about 6 months. • Between 6 months to 1 year, children begin to specialize in their mother’s tongue

Parent-Child Interaction and Modeling • Mayan mothers from Guatemala assist their daughters in learning to weave by segmenting the process into steps, providing guidance in the context of joint participation, and adjusting the daughter’s participation in weaving according to her increasing skill and interest (Rogoff, 2003; 1986) • Toddlers in India learn to distinguish the left hand from the right • Right hand used for eating; left hand for cleaning after defecation • EuroAmerican mothers use stimulation to guide childrens’ task development (i.e., shaking an object to promote attention and direction)

Vygotsky’s Framework for Understanding Culture • Ontogenetic Development • Change as a function of the individual life span • Phylogenetic Development • Changes to the species history and makeup thru genes • Cultural-Historical Development • Changes across decades and centuries, leaving a legacy for individuals in the form of symbolic and material technologies • Microgenetic Development • Moment to moment learning of individuals in particular contexts, built on the individual’s genetic and cultural-historical background

Gender Differences as a Function of Culture • Biological Preparation of Gender Roles • Gender differences are a function of investment in procreation. • Women need to invest in longer periods of time to ensure their genes are passed. • To ensure the genetic tradition for a woman, she must carry a child for nine months • 2 to 3 years of nursing • Years protecting and teaching to prepare for procreation • Men require less investment to pass their genetic tradition as they may father a child through multiple women • Men cannot always be completely certain a particular child is theirs. In many cases, this becomes a criteria for fathering.

Gender Differences as a Function of Culture Cont. • Gender Role Training • Children develop gender roles through the models respective to one’s culture. • In many cultures, behaviors are increasingly reinforced as a function of gender • Examples: • In many cultures girls are placed under greater social pressure to maintain cleanliness and protect their clothing • Girls tend to receive more training for proper social behavior than do boys • Boys tend to be given greater latitude for becoming adventurous and risk-taking • Girls tend to be socialized to do chores and participate in child rearing tasks at earlier ages than boys. Boys typically inherit these roles in the absence of a family of female siblings.

Gender Distinctions/Child Development • Children tend to be more rigid than adults in their definitions of gender roles • In many cultures, learning of roles consists of adult guides (scaffolding and modeling) • Girls are often assigned chores close in proximity to ensure observation and feedback

Challenge to Understanding Culture and Community • Categories of culture and community are to multiple and complex • Definition of community must be further operationalized: • Community is not just a collection of people but also people with shared organization, values understanding, history, and practices

According to John Dewey • “There is more than a verbal tie between the words common, community, and communication. People live in a community in virtue of the things which they have in common; and communication is the way in which they come to possess things in common” (Dewey, 1916, p5) • Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education. New York: MacMillan.

More on Community • A community involves people working together with a similar purpose • Multiple generations moving through it with shared customs that are passed between generation • Is community a function of participation or membership?

Individuals, Generations, and Dynamic Cultural Communities