Reality and Representation in the Cultural Psychology of Childcare: Incorporating a Critical Perspective

Abstract

Cultural relativism and multiculturalism are very useful analytic frameworks. But when the cultural insider’s view becomes the entire story of the analysis, we are in danger of covering up or even legitimizing existing cultural dysfunction or oppressive inequality in the name of cultural relativism. The result is a significantly incomplete representation of social contexts of childcare. This commentary explores several possible areas of cultural dysfunction mentioned in DeLoache and Gottlieb’s (2000) book AWorld of Babies: Imagined Childcare Guides for Seven Societies, though not elaborated and explored for their possible impact on childcare. This is done in an effort to include some of the problematic aspects of childcare in cultural context that may have been left out of the DeLoache and Gottlieb volume. It is argued that a truly open-minded approach assumes that particular social practices or cultural ideas may be right or wrong, freely adopted or coerced, beneficial or detrimental. Not only does the experimental format of the book preclude such a critical relationship to cultural meaning and practice, it completely usurps the native voice, which seems unethical and, as Tomlinson and Swartz argue, obscures more than it illuminates.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Amnesty International. (2003). Amina Lawal: Sentenced to death for adultery. Retrieved September 3, 2003 from http://web.amnesty.org/web/web.nsf/print/nga-260803-background-eng

Awwad, A.M. (2002). Virginity control and gender-based violence in Turkey: Social constructionism of patriarchy, masculinity, and sexual purity. Presentation to the Society for the Study of Social Problems.

Calabrese, J.D. (1994). Reflexivity and transformation symbolism in the Navajo Peyote meeting . Ethos: Journal of the Society for Psychological Anthropology, 22, 494–527 .

Calabrese, J.D. (2001). The Supreme Court versus Peyote: Consciousness alteration, cultural psychiatry and the dilemma of contemporary subcultures . Anthropology of Consciousness, 12, 4–19 .

Corrigan, P.W., & Calabrese, J.D. (in press). Strategies for diminishing the impact of self-stigma. In P. Corrigan (Ed.), A comprehensive review of the stigma of mental illness: Implications for research and social change. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association .

DeLoache, J., & Gottlieb, A. (Eds.). (2000). A world of babies: Imagined childcare guides for seven societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .

Edgerton, R.B. (1992). Sick societies: Challenging the myth of primitive harmony. New York: Free Press .

Geertz, C. (1977). ‘From the native’s point of view’: On the nature of anthropological understanding. In J. Dolgin, D. Kemnitzer, & D. Schneider (Eds.), Symbolic anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .

Griswold, E. (2001). Faith of her fathers . The New Republic, 224, 13–15 .

10.

Hallowell, A.I. (1955). The self and its behavioral environment. In A. I. Hallowell (Ed.), Culture and experience. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press .

11.

Herdt, G. (1981). Guardians of the flutes. New York: McGraw-Hill .

12.

Herdt, G. (1990). Sambia nosebleeding rites and male proximity to women. In J. Stigler, R. Shweder and G. Herdt (Eds.), Cultural psychology: Essays in comparative human development(pp. 366–400). New York: Cambridge University Press .

13.

Hollan, D. (1997). The relevance of person-centered ethnography to crosscultural psychiatry . Transcultural Psychiatry, 34, 219–234 .

14.

Jehl, D. (1999, June 20). Arab honor’s price: Awoman’s blood. The New York Times, pp. 1-1, 8-8.

15.

LeVine, R.A. (1982). Culture, behavior, and personality: An introduction to the comparative study of psychosocial adaptation. New York: Aldine .

16.

Scheper-Hughes, N. (1992). Hungry bodies, medicine, and the state: Toward a critical psychological anthropology. In T. Schwartz, G. White, and C. Lutz (Eds.), New directions in psychological anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .

17.

Sev’er, A., & Yurdakul, G. (2001). Culture of honor, culture of change: A feminist analysis of honor killings in rural Turkey . Violence Against Women, 7, 964–998 .

18.

Shweder, R.A. (2002). ‘What about female genital mutilation?’ and why understanding culture matters in the first place. In R. Shweder, M. Minow, & H.R. Markus (Eds.), Engaging cultural differences. New York: Russell Sage Foundation .