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Showing Original Post only (View all)Jared Diamond: Do Hunter-Gatherer Societies Raise Their Children Better Than Americans Do? [View all]
http://www.alternet.org/books/jared-diamond-do-hunter-gatherer-societies-raise-their-children-better-americans-doHow much freedom or encouragement do children have to explore their environment? Are children permitted to do dangerous things, with the expectation that they must learn from their mistakes? Or are parents protective of their childrens safety, and do parents curtail exploration and pull kids away if they start to do something that could be dangerous?
The answer to this question varies among societies. However, a tentative generalization is that individual autonomy, even of children, is a more cherished ideal in hunter-gatherer bands than in state societies, where the state considers that it has an interest in its children, does not want children to get hurt by doing as they please, and forbids parents to let a child harm itself.
That theme of autonomy has been emphasized by observers of many hunter-gatherer societies. For example, Aka Pygmy children have access to the same resources as do adults, whereas in the U.S. there are many adults-only resources that are off-limits to kids, such as weapons, alcohol, and breakable objects. Among the Martu people of the Western Australian desert, the worst offense is to impose on a childs will, even if the child is only 3 years old. The Piraha Indians consider children just as human beings, not in need of coddling or special protection. In Everetts words, They [Piraha children] are treated fairly and allowance is made for their size and relative physical weakness, but by and large they are not considered qualitatively different from adults ... This style of parenting has the result of producing very tough and resilient adults who do not believe that anyone owes them anything. Citizens of the Piraha nation know that each days survival depends on their individual skills and hardiness ... Eventually they learn that it is in their best interests to listen to their parents a bit.
Some hunter-gatherer and small-scale farming societies dont intervene when children or even infants are doing dangerous things that may in fact harm them, and that could expose a Western parent to criminal prosecution. I mentioned earlier my surprise, in the New Guinea Highlands, to learn that the fire scars borne by so many adults of Enus adoptive tribe were often acquired in infancy, when an infant was playing next to a fire, and its parents considered that child autonomy extended to a babys having the right to touch or get close to the fire and to suffer the consequences. Hadza infants are permitted to grasp and suck on sharp knives. Nevertheless, not all small-scale societies permit children to explore freely and do dangerous things.
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Jared Diamond: Do Hunter-Gatherer Societies Raise Their Children Better Than Americans Do? [View all]
xchrom
Jan 2013
OP
Can you answer my questions? Do you think we should get rid of all laws protecting children?
cali
Jan 2013
#8
I don't think you should ask loaded rhetorical questions and then demand an answer.
Bucky
Jan 2013
#11
That's not the way humans organize themselves once a certain population threshold is reached
Fumesucker
Jan 2013
#15
Evidently the threshold is below that of the population of every significant nation on the planet
Fumesucker
Jan 2013
#31
And I bet they keep their bow and arrows unloaded with trigger locks when not in use.
Nuclear Unicorn
Jan 2013
#5
hate to break this to you, but that's hierarchical. and you sound approving of it.
cali
Jan 2013
#18
I think r/K selection is facinating stuff, and Guns, Grems, and Steel was brilliant n/t
galileoreloaded
Jan 2013
#39