The Ecology of Playful Childhood : The Diversity and Resilience of Caregiver-Child Interactions among the San of Southern Africa (Palgrave Studies on the Anthropology of Childhood and Youth)

The Ecology of Playful Childhood

The Diversity and Resilience of Caregiver-Child Interactions among the San of Southern Africa

Palgrave Studies on the Anthropology of Childhood and Youth

単著
地域研究
人類学
社会
高田明(アジア・アフリカ地域研究研究科 / 著者)
Akira Takada (アジア・アフリカ地域研究研究科, 著者)
出版年月
出版社
Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN
9783030494391
本体価格備考
66.99EUR
頁数
244
本文言語
English

内容紹介

While studies of San children have attained the peculiar status of having delineated the prototype for hunter-gatherer childhood, relatively few serious ethnographic studies of San children have been conducted since an initial flurry of research in the 1960s and 1970s. Based on the author’s long-term field research among several San groups of Southern Africa, this book reconsiders hunter-gatherer childhood using “play” as a key concept. Playfulness pervades the intricate practices of caregiver-child interactions among the San: immediately after birth, mothers have extremely close contact with their babies. In addition to the mother’s attentions, other people around the babies actively facilitate gymnastic behavior to soothe them. These distinctive caregiving behaviors indicate a loving, indulgent attitude towards infants. This also holds true for several language genres of the San that are used in early vocal communication. Children gradually become involved in various playful activities in groups of children of multiple ages, which is the major locus of their attachment after weaning; these playful activities show important similarities to the household and subsistence activities carried out by adults. Rejuvenating studies of San children and hunter-gatherer childhood and childrearing practices, this book aims to examine these issues in detail, ultimately providing a new perspective for the understanding of human sociality.

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