Kathy's Commentaries

Traditional Child-Rearing Practices:
A Cross-Cultural Breastfeeding Reference List

by Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.

Department of Anthropology,
Texas A & M University

Here is a partial list of things that have been written by anthropologists talking about child rearing (especially breastfeeding) in other cultures:

Bond, J. et al. 1981
Infant and Child Feeding. New York: Academic Press.

Scheper-Hughes, Nancy (editor) 1987
Child Survival: Anthropological Perspectives on the Treatment and Maltreatment of Children. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishers.

Raphael, Dana (editor) 1979
Breastfeeding and Food Policy in a Hungry World. New York: Academic Press.

Hull, V. and M. Simpson (editors) 1985
Breastfeeding, Child Health, and Child Spacing: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. London: Croom Helm.

Marshall, Leslie (editor) 1985
Infant Care and Feeding in the South Pacific. New York: Gordon and Breach Science Publishers.

Mayer, P. 1970
Socialization: The Approach from Social Anthropology. London: Tavistock.

Curran, H. 1984
Nigerian Children: Developmental Perspectives. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Popkin, B. et al. 1986
The Infant-Feeding Triad: Infant, Mother, and Household. New York: Gordon and Breach Science Publishers.

Korbin, Jill (editor) 1981
Child Abuse and Neglect: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
Even though this sounds depressing, there is a lot of good descriptive detail about regular child rearing practices, as well as though few parents who neglect their children. There is also discussion of how many Western child-rearing practices are considered "abuse and neglect" by people in other cultures (esp. solitary sleeping and lack of physical contact).

Gelles, R.J. and J.B. Lancaster (editors) 1987
Child Abuse and Neglect: Biosocial Dimensions. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

There are also, of course, hundreds of articles in the professional anthropological journals.

And finally, I suggest a book by Joseph C. Pearce titled Evolution's End: Toward and Intelligence of the Heart, published in 1992 by Harper of San Francisco. He includes many of the same sentiments of Jean Liedloff's work, again with some strange stuff thrown in.

Prepared by Sue Ann Kendall, August 3, 1995.

Return to the Kathy Dettwyler page.