Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Child Care and Culture examines parenthood, infancy, and early childhood in an African community, revealing patterns unanticipated by current theories of child development and raising provocative questions about 'normal' child care in the human species. Comparing the Gusii people of Kenya, whose practices were intensively observed from the combined perspectives of social anthropology, pediatrics, and developmental psychology, with the American white middle class, the authors show how divergent cultural priorities create differing conditions for early childhood development.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Foreword
• List of tables and figures
• Preface
• Part I African Infancy: Frameworks For Understanding
• 1 The comparative study of child care
• 2 Infant care in subsaharan Africa
• Part II Parenthood Among The Gusii of Kenya
• 3 Gusii culture: A person-centered perspective
• 4 Gusii fertility, marriage, and family
• 5 Pregnancy and birth
• Part III Infant Care and Development in a Gusii Community
• 6 Infant care: Cultural norms and interpersonal environment
• 7 Survival and health: The priorities of parents
• 8 Communication and social learning during infancy
• 9 Variations in infant interaction: Illustrative cases
• Part IV Interpretations
• 10 Early child development in an African context: Comparative lessons
• Appendices
• References

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

This study reports on research conducted during 1974-76 among the Gusii, an agropastoral people in Kenya. The senior author, Robert LeVine, had worked in the same district during the 1950s and was thus familiar with the area and the people. The study team includes the combined perspectives (and personnel) of social anthropology, pediatrics, and developmental psychology, as well as physicians. Overall, the study concentrates on 28 Gusii children and their environment over a period of 17 months, providing a profile of care from birth to 30 months of age. It compares Gusii and American mothers in Boston, Massachusetts. The book successively discusses infancy and childcare in Africa; pregnancy, birth, and parenting among the Gusii; infant care and health; communication and social learning; and infant interaction. A final chapter summarizes child development in Africa and compares this with the US perspective. For example, the Gusii model is pediatric, i.e., aimed at survival, while the American model is pedagogical, aimed at preparing the child for educational interactions. It is a pity that there is a 20-year lapse between research and publication. Undergraduates and above. B. M. du Toit University of Florida

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Thomas Berry Brazelton Jr. was born in Waco, Texas on May 10, 1918. He received a bachelor's degree from Princeton University in 1940 and a medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1943. He took his pediatric training at Boston Children's Hospital in 1947 and went on to study child psychiatry at Massachusetts General and the James Jackson Putnam Children's Center. In 1950, he began a private practice in pediatrics and was an instructor at Harvard Medical School. He also went on to teach at Brown University.

He revolutionized people's understanding of how children develop psychologically. He wrote around 40 books including Infants and Mothers: Differences in Development, wrote a column in Family Circle magazine, and was the host of the show What Every Baby Knows, which ran for 12 years. He received the World of Children Award for his achievements in child advocacy in 2002 and the Presidential Citizens Medal in 2013. His memoir, Learning to Listen: A Life Caring for Children, was published in 2013. He died on March 13, 2018 at the age of 99.

(Bowker Author Biography)