The child as anthropologist

Abstract

Accounts of cognitive development have often portrayed children as independent scientists who gather first-hand data and form theories about the natural world. I argue that this metaphor is inappropriate for children's cultural learning. In that domain, children are better seen as anthropologists who attend to, engage with, and learn from members of their culture. I describe several strategies that children use for such cultural learning. They trust in other people's testimony concerning invisible phenomena; they repeatedly question their caregivers; they defer to others people's demonstrations and claims; and they select informants who are likely to be reliable representatives of their culture.