Developing Destinies: A Mayan Midwife and Town (Child Development in Cultural Context) - Hardcover

Rogoff, Barbara

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195319907 ISBN 13: 9780195319903

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2011

Synopsis

Winner of the 2014 Maccoby Award from the American Psychological Association, Division 7!

Born with the destiny of becoming a Mayan sacred midwife, Chona Pérez has carried on centuries-old traditional Indigenous American birth and healing practices over her 85 years. At the same time, Chona developed new approaches to the care of pregnancy, newborns, and mothers based on her own experience and ideas. In this way, Chona has contributed to both the cultural continuities and cultural changes of her town over the decades.

In Developing Destinies, Barbara Rogoff illuminates how individuals worldwide build on cultural heritage from prior generations and at the same time create new ways of living. Throughout Chona's lifetime, her Guatemalan town has continued to use longstanding Mayan cultural practices, such as including children in a range of community activities and encouraging them to learn by observing and contributing. But the town has also transformed dramatically since the days of Chona's own childhood. For instance, although Chona's upbringing included no formal schooling, some of her grandchildren have gone on to attend university and earn scholarly degrees. The lives of Chona and her town provide extraordinary examples of how cultural practices are preserved even as they are adapted and modified.

Developing Destinies is an engaging narrative of one remarkable person's life and the life of her community that blends psychology, anthropology, and history to reveal the integral role that culture plays in human development. With extensive photographs and accounts of Mayan family life, medical practices, birth, child development, and learning, Rogoff adeptly shows that we can better understand the role of culture in our lives by examining how people participate in cultural practices. This landmark book brings theory alive with fascinating ethnographic findings that advance our understanding of childhood, culture, and change.

About this title

About the Author

Barbara Rogoff is UCSC Foundation Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has been a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, a Kellogg Fellow, and Editor of Human Development. Her books Apprenticeship in Thinking (OUP, 1990), Learning Together (OUP, 2001), and The Cultural Nature of Human Development (OUP, 2003) have received awards from the American Psychological Association and the American Educational Research Association. Her current book, Developing Destinies, deepens the ideas presented in her previous books, building on her three decades of research on human development in a Mayan community in Guatemala.

Barbara Rogoff received the 2013 Award for Distinguished Contributions to Cultural and Contextual Factors in Child Development, from the Society for Research in Child Development.
The citation read: "For her brilliant insights about and specification of development as a cultural process;
For her highly influential research and writing underscoring the influences of parental practices;
For illuminating how inclusion and participation in adult settings are critical to children's development;
For underscoring the necessity of multicultural perspectives on development through her exemplary contributions to the development of ethnic minority scholars."

From the Back Cover

"Very moving, and highly informative. An anthropologically perceptive and personally involved account of a long-term study by a gifted American social scientist. Bravo!"
--Jerome Bruner, Ph.D., University Professor, New York University

"Barbara Rogoff portrays the lives of individuals in Guatemala with vividly rich detail."
--T. Berry Brazelton, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics, Emeritus Harvard Medical School and Founder, Brazelton Touchpoints Center

"This captivating and original book is at once a deeply informed portrait of Mayan culture as lived experience, an introduction to the worldwide impact of 20th century social change on rural communities, and the story of a Guatemalan midwife whose experience embodies the traditions and history of her people. Anyone seeking to understand the 'majority world,' where most children are growing up, will enjoy and benefit from this finely wrought book."
--Robert LeVine, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Education and Human Development,
Harvard Graduate School of Education

"Rogoff brilliantly captures cultural change and continuity by locating a colorful, wise, and resilient Mayan midwife's life historically, in local and global practices including 500-year-old Aztec birthing regimes and understandings. Developing Destinies advances our notions of culture and human development and learning by illustrating the enduring and dynamic nature of cultural practices and individual lives. A compelling narrative that illuminates key theoretical advances!"
--Kris D. Gutiérrez, Ph.D., Professor and Inaugural Provost's Chair, School of Education, University of Colorado at Boulder, and
President, American Educational Research Association

"This volume is one of the most extraordinary books ever written on human development. The narrative originates in the life of a midwife in Guatemala who cannot read or write, conveyed by Rogoff's superb writing style and permeated by her highly original approach to human development. What results is a fascinating appreciation of eight dramatic decades of change and continuity in the culture and life of a Mayan community. The work contributes a unique theoretical perspective regarding the intertwining of culture, history, and individual processes. The many interesting photographs Rogoff shares with us are an integral part of the flow of ideas. Developing Destinies is a gem for both the scholar and the general reader."
--Joseph J. Campos, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology and Past Director of the
Institute of Human Development, University of California, Berkeley

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195319907
• ISBN 13: 9780195319903
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 343