Culture & Child-Rearing

Freudian Theory:Infantile Sexuality

• Develops through stages toward “normal” adult heterosexuality

• Oral Anal Phallic / Oedipal

• Early developments must be repressed & sublimated

Oral Stage (birth – 2)• nursing, sucking

• pleasure: lips & mouth; satiety

• anxiety: hunger, abandonment

Oral character:

• Anxiety about nurturance, separation

• Eating, smoking, drinking to calm anxiety

• Dependency

Anal Stage (2 – 4)

• Defecation (control of sphincter)

• Pleasure: sensation of defecating, making messes, defiance

• Anxiety: dirtying, loss of control, chaos, fear of punishment

Anal character:

• Order, control, cleanliness, neatness

• Constrictive / impulsive emotional style

Phallic / Oedipal Stage (5 – 7)

• Attachment to mother sexualized

• Punitive father threatens attachment to / dependence on mother

• Threat experienced as “castration anxiety”

• Sexualized attachment to mother repressed

• Identification with father – “masculinity”

Boys’ Oedipal Complex

• Accept as correct?

• Reject as wrong?

• Describes psychological consequences of authoritarian fathering?

Girls’ Oedipal Complex?

• Discovery of “castration”

• Rejection of mother + sexualized attachment to father (with unconscious “wish for penis”)

• Shift of attachment from father to man

• Wish for penis becomes wish for baby

• Re-identification with mother

Girls’ Oedipal Complex

• Accept as correct?

• Reject as wrong?

• Describes psych. consequences of patriarchal power?

Freud: A Cultural Psychology?

  Initial Indulgence Age of Training Severity

Oral 2nd lowest 2nd earliest weaning upper quartile

Anal 3rd lowest 2nd earliest most severe (tied)

Sex lowest among earliest most severe (tied)

Dependence slightly below median slightly earlier than median

at median

Aggression near median near median slightly above median

U.S. vs. 72 non-Western cultures – early 1950s

“Object Relations” TheoryWinnicott, Kernberg, Mahler, etc.

• Attachment & separation / individuation– Sex & aggression not primary– Shaped by attachment & separation

Need for “secure” attachment

Need for “separation – individuation”

Life-Span Development & IdentityErik Erikson

• 8 stages

• each has a key “developmental task”

• Identity:

adolescence & adulthood

identifications re-worked into ideology

Social Self: G. H. Mead

• “Me”: self reflected by others

vs.

• “I” : subjective experience, responds to “Me”

Social Self: G. H. Mead

• “Me” self: learned by seeing one’s self from other’s point of view

• Role-playing: children’s games sports social institutions

Generalized Other

[ Sartre’s “they” ]

Theory Question

• How is Mead’s “social self” related to Erikson’s “Identity”?

• G.G.’s answer:

social self develops in late childhood

defines task of identity formation

Levels & Periods of Psych. Develop.

  infancy early childhood

late childhood

adolescence early adulthood

Core Level I

apprentice-ship

competence expertise    

Social Persona Level II

( Mead )

  apprentice-ship

competence expertise  

Identity Level III

( Erikson )

    apprentice-ship

competence expertise

Ecology of Child Development

Subsistence• Edgerton studies in Africa:

Pastoralists: open emotionality + independence

Agriculturalists: closed emotinoality + obedience

• MENA: agro-pastoral = tension?

Subsistence• Evil Eye -- Envy Complex

• “paranoia hypothesis”: no association with infant care

• Association with peasant communities, “limited good,” inequality, exploitative authorities

“patronal dependency” & “risk

of seizure”

Subsistence

• Household Organization:

• East Africa: dispersed mother & children units

interpersonal reticence

• West Africa & MENA: large shared households

gregarious, highly sociable

Climate:Sling vs. Cradle Cultures

• Slings: warmer climates

• Cradles: colder climates

Gusii (West Kenya)

Morocco

Native American

Native American

Native American

Dark: cradle

White: sling

Sling vs. Cradle Cultures

• Sling cultures:– “cross-gender” identity conflict– resolved via masculinizing ritual

• Cradle cultures:– “dependency” conflict– resolved via solitary vision quest &

guardian spirit (Native America)

Culture & Childcare

• Pre-industrial: “pediatric” modelshigh infant-mortality

protect & nurture

• Modern: “pedagogic” modelssurvival assumed

prepare for school & achievement

Pediatric vs. Pedagogic ModelsRobert LeVine et al

Mothering Behavior

Objectives of Mothering

• Pediatric (pre-industrial):minimize caloric expenditurefoundation of life-long attachment

• Pedagogic (modern):elicit interest & engagement in worldprepare for school & achievementprepare to separate from family

Pediatric Model Infant Care

• “Symbiotic” mother-infant bond?

• Cultivation of intense dependence?– Undermines individuation?– Basis for life-long attachment?– Foundation for patron-client style relations?

• Abrupt weaning– Traumatic?– Undermines individuation?

“Pediatric”-Style Infant Care

Secure attachment

resilience

Weaning & decreased nurturance creates potentially-traumatic developmental challenge

household as “transitional obj” ?

hsld as honor-bearing “group self” ?

“Pediatric”-Style Infant Care

Matrifocal interdependence

Japan: “indulged dependence”

indebtedness

fear of abandonment

motivates group loyalty & achievement ?

MENA:Traditional Infant Care

Infant Care:

Pediatric Model+ Sling Carrying

Infancy:

Sibling Caretaking

Infancy:Hunger & Illnesses

Pediatric Model: extended nursing

Paternal care

Pediatric model & “dethronement”?

Infancy

• Pedagogic model + sling carrying

• shared with Africa, South Asia

• Fosters “matri-focal interdependence”

• Debate: “dethronement” undermines autonomy vs. promotes wider attachments & household “group” self?

“Pediatric”-Style Infant Care

MENA:

• anchors loyalty & “group self” to household/kin group ?

• Motivates achievement ?

• Q: how patriarchal authority relations affect matrifocal interdependence ?

Early Childhood• Toddlers / “yard child”

• Dethronement?

• Hunger & food?

• Poor health?

• Fear of jinn-s, ogres, etc.

• Sibling rivalry

• Circumcision / F.G.C.

Gender Development

Nancy ChodorowReproduction of Mothering

Freud: Oedipal complex is key

M & F begin as if boys

Chodorow: pre-Oedipal attachment key

M & F begin as if girls

based on identification with mother & core “feminine” sense of self

Chodorow Theory

• Girls: preserve identification with mother & core feminine sense of self

shift attachment from F to M

• Boys: renounce / repress identification with mother & feminine sense of self

construct masculine sense of self

misogyny = projection of feared/despised feminine sense of self

John Whiting Theory( masculine development )

• Long exclusive mother-infant co-sleeping leads to…

Stronger “feminine” identification

Greater need for “masculinizing” ritual

Puberty rituals with genital mutilation– Excising “femaleness”– Creating “male” bodies & persons

Chodorow-Whiting Theory:Applies to MENA?

• “Pediatric” care maternal interdependence

• Circumcision at 4 – 7

• Crapanzano:– Has “masculinizing” meanings– But too early to be rite of passage– Question: masculinity must be achieved

Female Development• Continuity with mothers:

– attachment

– identification

• “Circumcision” / FGC in Nilotic areas

• Etiquettes of deference & modesty

• Increasing seclusion and covering

• Rich symbolism of fertility, purity, pollution

Late Childhood

Apprenticeship Learning

Learning by direction from parents, older siblings, etc.

• Work skills

• Etiquettes of kinship & social interaction

Late Childhood

Shepherd kids

Grinding grain for cous-cous

Late childhood: fathers, sons & work

Late childhood:

sisters

Late Childhood:

Quranic School

Late Childhood

Shift to more formal training:

• Father becomes more distant & punitive

• Honor-modesty etiquettes learned as relations expand beyond family

• Islam learned:– Quranic school (for boys, some girls)– Etiquettes & self-care

Formation of social selves (G.H. Mead)

Authoritarian?

• Fathers: demanding & harsh

• Quranic school teacher

• Mothers: protective; sheltering; complicity in evading father

• Play: traditional boys’ games

Authoritarianism?

• Traditional patriarchy may not = modern “authoritarianism”

• Traditional child rearing multiple models of relationship, some mentoring, some egalitarian, some authoritarian.

Authoritarianism?

• Urbanization & modernization increases “authoritarianism”?

• Amplifies polarization of tolerant-democratic & authoritarian world-views?

• Islamism and return to religion NOT fueled by psych. authoritarianism?