Our Babies, Ourselves I

The Anthropology of Parenting.

"[Some researchers] believed that any social and political structure molds parents, and that parents in turn shape children to fit into a society by promoting culture-specific patterns of personality. Even the more elaborate displays of culture, such as ceremonies, rituals, and the arts, presumably can be traced back to individual motivation, parenting-styles, and the underlying culture framework." p48

Let me spell that out a little bit. How much am i allowed to quote in this blog? I wouldn't want people to feel they are reading a book through me.

Anyway, "For example, anthropologists have used subsistence patterns-that is, the ways people obtain food-- to explain features of personality. The stretch from food to personality might seem like a long one, but if people are in any sense molded by their culture, then there should be links from how we go about surviving at the most fundamental level to who we are at the most esoteric level". p49

hunter/gatherer ->intiative and persistence =>those parents foster self-reliance
pastoralist parents foster responsibility

She goes on to write about communities in transition, "parents do shift to a pattern of care that fosters different values required for the new lifestyle".

For the most part, those in the West have an option as to how they will obtain food. I mean how they will earn money to obtain food. In my background we were given the option to decide a profession. I was allowed to think through what I like to do and how I wanted to spend my future. And I was given 21 years to come to place where I could then be independent. With food readily available and even jobs plentiful at the time, I think what was fostered in me was to look for personal fulfillment and happiness. Now with the U.S. economy changing, maybe we will see parenting styles reflecting that a bit too.

I realized another aspect of obtaining food is how often you go and get food. In some ways, back in the West it seems like we live on a weekly basis. Grocery shopping on Saturday. Clean the sheets on Monday. Vacuum on Wednesdays. Etc. (For those of you honestly admitting you live more on a monthly basis, yeah, me too!) But here most things are on a daily basis. There is so much dust and dirt you have to clean everyday. Most food shop everyday. Back West I remember making the grocery run for the week. Here you can't stock up. Its too hot, too many creepy-crawlies, too little preservatives, and too inconsistent of electricity. And for the locals, it can be too little money. They shop for each meal. How does this reality effect/shape one's personality?

A HUGE difference between here and there is living in joint families. In these families where there are 20 people, you can have a nice division of labor. Some work and bring home the money, some go to the bazaar and get the food, some watch the kids, some cook. It creates a real dependence on each other. On the other hand, I have been taught to be independent and manage on my own (with Joe).