The Anthropology of Learning in Childhood - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0759113238 ISBN 13: 9780759113237

Publisher: AltaMira Press, 2011

Synopsis

The Anthropology of Learning in Childhood offers a large, mural-like portrait of childhood across time, culture, species, and environment. Even a casual reading of the literature on childhood will persuade one that learning is a very important topic that commands the attention of tens of thousands of scholars and practitioners. Yet, anthropological research on children has exerted relatively little influence on this community. This book will change that. The book demonstrates that anthropologists studying childhood can offer a description and theoretically sophisticated account of children's learning and its role in their development, socialization, and enculturation. Further, it demonstrates the particular contribution that children's learning makes to the construction of society and culture as well as the role that culture-acquiring children play in human evolution. Chapters have been contributed in archaeology, primatology, biological and cultural anthropology, and cross-cultural psychology.

About this title

About the Author:

David F. Lancy is professor of anthropology at Utah State University. John Bock is professor of anthropology at California State University, Fullerton. Suzanne Gaskins is professor of psychology at Northeastern Illinois University.

Review:

David Lancy, John Bock, and Suzanne Gaskins have assembled an outstanding set of essays on what children around the world learn, how they learn it, and the many people involved in that learning. This book will be a valuable resource for students, researchers, educators, and all those interested in a broader cross-cultural perspective on these critical issues for understanding children and childhood. (Jill E. Korbin, Case Western Reserve University)

This reference volume is a unique contribution to childhood studies. The eminent contributors present the full breadth of anthropological knowledge about children's learning, from historical and cross-cultural studies to evolutionary biology and life-history theory. By leaving out no perspective or condition, the volume presents a synthesis of what anthropologists know about childhood learning. There is something for everyone here―students, teachers, and researchers alike. Nothing like this book currently exists, and it is unlikely to be matched for many years. (Jane B. Lancaster, University of New Mexico)

The Anthropology of Learning in Childhood shows us how and why we acquire knowledge and understanding of the world. The authors provide excellent overviews of evolutionary perspectives, social processes in learning, the roles of play and work, non-parental teachers, classrooms, and the importance of moral, sociolinguistic, and gender frameworks. The time and context ranges from non-human primates and the Paleolithic, right up to the present. This is a marvelously holistic, landmark book - one of the best books on learning in sociocultural contexts currently available. (Thomas S. Weisner, University of California, Los Angeles)

A fascinating collection of anthropological accounts of children's learning in context. From archaeology to evolutionary biology, from primate routines to identity construction, from pottery-making to street crime, this book brings to light the mundane and the extraordinary in children's experiences of learning culture across time and space. It challenges the reader to focus on the real conditions of contemporary children's lives. (Margaret Eisenhart, University of Colorado at Boulder)

David Lancy, John Bock, and Suzanne Gaskins make an important contribution to our understanding of children’s learning through a unique collection of eighteen essays written by archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, evolutionary anthropologist, and linguist. This volume is noteworthy for its comprehensiveness including chapters examining the archaeological record, nonhuman primates, traditional societies, and children’s learning in adverse environments....As Lancy, Bock, and Gaskins’s book reflects, this scholarship has resulted in a fundamental reformulation of learning including its evolutionary significance, what children learn, and how learning takes place in diverse contexts. (American Journal of Play)

About this edition

• Publisher: AltaMira Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0759113238
• ISBN 13: 9780759113237
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 410
• Editor: Lancy Utah State University And David F., Bock John, Gaskins Suzanne