Infancy and Ethnography
- LAST REVIEWED: 23 March 2012
- LAST MODIFIED: 23 March 2012
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791231-0020
- LAST REVIEWED: 23 March 2012
- LAST MODIFIED: 23 March 2012
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791231-0020
Introduction
The study of infancy remains mostly the province of the specialists: developmental psychologists, pediatricians, nutritionists, educators. Infants, by definition—if one remembers the Latin root of the word—cannot speak. They also have limited autonomy. How then can one study them ethnographically? The references collected here suggest the richness of available research methods and the gamut of infant-centered ethnographic topics being researched. Infants have captured the attention of ethnographers for about a century, albeit infrequently. Methods of study, culled from a variety of fields and some invented, have been practiced and refined over a long period of time. In some cases, ethnographies are challenging what have been taken as biological certainties, for instance that attachment to a single individual or a small number of individuals is necessary for healthy development. Ethnography allows one to see infants in a somewhat different light because one studies them outside of controlled environments and often spends much more time in their presence. Some of the sources are not ethnographic per se but do present research conducted outside of controlled environments and use ethnographic methods. At the beginning of the 1970s, gender studies had only a tenuous foothold in the humanities. If this once-tiny niche has unsettled disciplines from history to English to sociology, it is partly because it has made us view familiar phenomena and events in a different light. By studying babies within the larger sphere of social life, the ethnography of infants may render new perspectives on social life at large. This bibliography highlights sources that demonstrate both how infants can be studied and how studying them can enrich anthropology, psychology, education, and other disciplines.
General Overviews
The overviews listed here concern a variety of things. Rochat 2001 is a highly readable overview of psychological research with infants. For one who does not know a lot about developmental psychology and wants to know more, this volume is highly recommended. Keller 2007 treats more specifically the meaning of culture in developmental psychology research with infants. LeVine and New 2008 is probably the best introduction to anthropological approaches to infancy, even though the whole volume is not about babies. One of the important features of this volume is that it covers the oft-forgotten early anthropological studies of infants. Small 1998, at the intersection of biology and culture, is a useful starting point to learn about anthropological and other culturally informed approaches to infancy. As her point of departure, Alma Gottlieb asks why infants are of such little interest to anthropologists (Gottlieb 2000). Whiting and Whiting 1975 is a classic of the anthropology of childhood and includes interesting observations about infants. Readers proficient in Portuguese will not be disappointed by Faria, et al. 2002, which offers a helpful overview of the cultural study of infancy.
Faria, Ana Lúcia G., Zeila B. F. Demartini, and Patrícia Prado, eds. Por uma cultura da infância: Metodologias de pesquisa com crianças. Campinas, Brazil: Autores Associados, 2002.
A collection of essays on the culture of infancy and how one might go about studying that culture. The contributions range from a study of the interpretations of drawings and orality to theoretical discussion of Walter Benjamin’s Berlin Childhood around 1900 (Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 2006). One will also see why Brazil is at the cutting edge of ethnographic studies of infancy.
Gottlieb, Alma. “Where Have All the Babies Gone? Toward an Anthropology of Infants (and Their Caretakers).” Anthropological Quarterly 73.3 (2000): 121–132.
Why are infants generally of so little interest to anthropologists? The author suggests six reasons, among them the babies’ apparent lack of agency, their seeming inability to communicate, even their bodily leakages. Others might disagree with the claim that anthropologists have overlooked infants and argue that babies have been written about but that there is little critical writing on that literature.
Keller, Heidi. Cultures of Infancy. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2007.
An ambitious cross-cultural study that takes developmental psychology into the world of cultural variation. Covering the concept of infancy, research methodologies, cultural modes of parenting, and more, the book investigates how developmental psychologists can carry out culturally informed research.
LeVine, Robert A., and Rebecca S. New, eds. Anthropology and Child Development: A Cross-Cultural Reader. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2008.
For an overview of the anthropology of infancy this is the best place to start. The contents are expertly chosen and the commentary puts the excerpts into context. The authors cover parenting strategies, language education, socialization, play, and more.
Rochat, Philippe. The Infant’s World. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.
The volume looks at infant research from many angles, some of which have also been studied by anthropologists. An excellent point of entry toward understanding the research of psychologists with babies and how it may be relevant to anthropologists.
Small, Meredith F. Our Babies, Ourselves: How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Parent. New York: Anchor, 1998.
A book that looks at the interface of biology and culture in relation to infanthood and that asks some of the questions that loom largest to parents, such as sleeping, crying, nursing, and walking. The works of biological anthropologists, cultural anthropologists, pediatricians, and psychologists are discussed.
Whiting, Beatrice B., and John Welsey Mayhew Whiting. Children of Six Cultures: A Psycho-Cultural Analysis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1975.
Still the most ambitious cross-cultural work on children to rely partially on participant observation, the book is mostly about older children––that is, children older than infants. Yet infants are present in this work and interesting observations are made regarding their care by older children and adult interaction with them.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- Abduction of Children
- Aboriginal Childhoods
- Addams, Jane
- ADHD, Sociological Perspectives on
- Adolescence and Youth
- Adolescent Consent to Medical Treatment
- Adoption and Fostering
- Adoption and Fostering, History of Cross-Country
- Adoption and Fostering in Canada, History of
- Advertising and Marketing, Psychological Approaches to
- Advertising and Marketing, Sociocultural Approaches to
- Africa, Children and Young People in
- African American Children and Childhood
- After-school Hours and Activities
- Aggression across the Lifespan
- Ancient Near and Middle East, Child Sacrifice in the
- Animals, Children and
- Animations, Comic Books, and Manga
- Anthropology of Childhood
- Archaeology of Childhood
- Ariès, Philippe
- Art History, Children in
- Attachment in Children and Adolescents
- Australia, History of Adoption and Fostering in
- Australian Indigenous Contexts and Childhood Experiences
- Autism, Females and
- Autism, Medical Model Perspectives on
- Autobiography and Childhood
- Benjamin, Walter
- Bereavement
- Best Interest of the Child
- Bioarchaeology of Childhood
- Body, Children and the
- Body Image
- Bourdieu, Pierre
- Boy Scouts/Girl Guides
- Boys and Fatherhood
- Breastfeeding
- Bronfenbrenner, Urie
- Bruner, Jerome
- Buddhist Views of Childhood
- Byzantine Childhoods
- Child and Adolescent Anger
- Child Beauty Pageants
- Child Homelessness
- Child Mortality, Historical Perspectives on Infant and
- Child Protection
- Child Protection, Children, Neoliberalism, and
- Child Public Health
- Child Trafficking and Slavery
- Childcare Manuals
- Childhod, Agency and
- Childhood and Borders
- Childhood and Empire
- Childhood as Discourse
- Childhood, Confucian Views of Children and
- Childhood, Memory and
- Childhood Publics
- Childhood Studies and Leisure Studies
- Childhood Studies in France
- Childhood Studies, Interdisciplinarity in
- Childhood Studies, Posthumanism and
- Childhoods in the United States, Sports and
- Childism
- Children and Dance
- Children and Film-Making
- Children and Money
- Children and Social Media
- Children and Sport
- Children and Sustainable Cities
- Children as Language Brokers
- Children as Perpetrators of Crime
- Children, Code-switching and
- Children in the Industrial Revolution
- Children with Autism in a Brazilian Context
- Children, Young People, and Architecture
- Children's Humor
- Children’s Museums
- Children’s Parliaments
- Children’s Reading Development and Instruction
- Children's Views of Childhood
- China, Japan, and Korea
- China's One Child Policy
- Citizenship
- Civil Rights Movement and Desegregation
- Class
- Classical World, Children in the
- Clothes and Costume, Children’s
- Collective Memory in Latin America, Childhoods and Collect...
- Colonial America, Child Witches in
- Colonialism and Human Rights
- Colonization and Nationalism
- Color Symbolism and Child Development
- Common World Childhoods
- Competitiveness, Children and
- Conceptual Development in Early Childhood
- Congenital Disabilities
- Constructivist Approaches to Childhood
- Consumer Culture, Children and
- Consumption, Child and Teen
- Conversation Analysis and Research with Children
- Critical Approaches to Children’s Work and the Concept of ...
- Crying
- Cultural psychology and human development
- Debt and Financialization of Childhood
- Disability
- Discipline and Punishment
- Discrimination
- Disney, Walt
- Divorce And Custody
- Dolls
- Domestic Violence
- Drawings, Children’s
- Early Childhood
- Early Childhood Care and Education, Selected History of
- Eating disorders and obesity
- Education: Learning and Schooling Worldwide
- Environment, Children and the
- Environmental Education and Children
- Ethics in Research with Children
- Eugenics
- Europe (including Greece and Rome), Child Sacrifice in
- Evolutionary Studies of Childhood
- Family Meals
- Fandom (Fan Studies)
- Fathers
- Female Genital Cutting
- Feminist New Materialist Approaches to Childhood Studies
- Feral and "Wild" Children
- Fetuses and Embryos
- Filicide
- Films about Children
- Films for Children
- Folk Tales, Fairy Tales and
- Folklore
- Food
- Foundlings and Abandoned Children
- Freud, Anna
- Freud, Sigmund
- Friends and Peers: Psychological Perspectives
- Froebel, Friedrich
- Gangs
- Gay and Lesbian Parents
- Gender and Childhood
- Generations, The Concept of
- Geographies, Children's
- Gifted and Talented Children
- Globalization
- Growing Up in the Digital Era
- Hall, G. Stanley
- Happiness in Children
- Hindu Views of Childhood and Child Rearing
- Hispanic Childhoods (U.S.)
- Historical Approaches to Child Witches
- History of Childhood in America
- History of Childhood in Canada
- HIV/AIDS, Growing Up with
- Homeschooling
- Humor and Laughter
- Images of Childhood, Adulthood, and Old Age in Children’s ...
- Infancy and Ethnography
- Infant Mortality in a Global Context
- Innocence and Childhood
- Institutional Care
- Intercultural Learning and Teaching with Children
- Islamic Views of Childhood
- Japan, Childhood in
- Juvenile Detention in the US
- Key, Ellen
- Klein, Melanie
- Labor, Child
- Latin America
- Learning, Language
- Learning to Write
- Legends, Contemporary
- Literary Representations of Childhood
- Literature, Children's
- Love and Care in the Early Years
- Magazines for Teenagers
- Maltreatment, Child
- Maria Montessori
- Marxism and Childhood
- Masculinities/Boyhood
- Material Cultures of Western Childhoods
- Mead, Margaret
- Media, Children in the
- Media Culture, Children's
- Medieval and Anglo-Saxon Childhoods
- Menstruation
- Middle Childhood
- Middle East
- Migration
- Miscarriage
- Missionaries/Evangelism
- Moral Development
- Moral Panics
- Mothers
- Multi-culturalism and Education
- Music and Babies
- Nation and Childhood
- Native American and Aboriginal Canadian Childhood
- New Reproductive Technologies and Assisted Conception
- Nursery Rhymes
- Organizations, Nongovernmental
- Orphans
- Parental Gender Preferences, The Social Construction of
- Parenting
- Pediatrics, History of
- Peer Culture
- Perspectives on Boys' Circumcision
- Peter Pan
- Philosophy and Childhood
- Piaget, Jean
- Play
- Politics, Children and
- Postcolonial Childhoods
- Post-Modernism
- Poverty, Rights, and Well-being, Child
- Pre-Colombian Mesoamerica Childhoods
- Premodern China, Conceptions of Childhood in
- Prostitution and Pornography, Child
- Psychoanalysis
- Queer Theory and Childhood
- Race and Ethnicity
- Racism, Children and
- Radio, Children, and Young People
- Readers, Children as
- Refugee and Displaced Children
- Reimagining Early Childhood Education, Reconceptualizing a...
- Relational Ontologies
- Relational Pedagogies
- Rights, Children’s
- Risk and Resilience
- Russia
- School Shootings
- Sex Education in the United States
- Sexuality
- Siblings
- Siblings, Learning Disabilities and
- Social and Cultural Capital of Childhood
- Social Habitus in Childhood
- Social Movements, Children's
- Social Policy, Children and
- Socialization and Child Rearing
- Socio-cultural Perspectives on Children's Spirituality
- Sociology of Childhood
- South African Birth to Twenty Project
- South Asia
- South Asia, History of Childhood in
- Special Education
- Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence
- Spock, Benjamin
- Sports and Organized Games
- Street Children
- Street Children And Brazil
- Subcultures
- Sure Start
- Teenage Fathers
- Teenage Pregnancy
- Television
- The Bible and Children
- The Harms and Prevention of Drugs and Alcohol on Children
- The Spaces of Childhood
- Theater for Children and Young People
- Theories, Pedagogic
- Tourism
- Toys
- Transgender Children
- Tweens
- Twins and Multiple Births
- Unaccompanied Migrant Children
- United Kingdom, History of Adoption and Fostering in the
- United States, Schooling in the
- Value of Children
- Views of Childhood, Jewish and Christian
- Violence, Children and
- Visual Representations of Childhood
- Voice, Participation, and Agency
- Vygotsky, Lev and His Cultural-historical Approach to Deve...
- War
- Welfare Law in the United States, Child
- Well-Being, Child
- Western Europe and Scandinavia
- Western Literature, The Urban Child in
- Witchcraft in the Contemporary World, Children and
- Work and Apprenticeship, Children's
- Young Carers
- Young Children and Inclusion
- Young Children’s Imagination
- Young Lives
- Young People, Alcohol, and Urban Life
- Young People and Climate Activism
- Young People and Disadvantaged Environments in Affluent Co...