Cultural Nature of Human Development

Cultural Nature of Human Development

Cultural Nature of Human Development

Barbara Rogoff

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

The Cultural Nature of Human Development

??? Cultural ??????

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Copyright © 2003 by Barbara Rogoff

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rogoff, Barbara. The cultural nature of human development / Barbara Rogoff.

p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-513133-9 1. Socialization. 2. Child development. 3. Cognition and culture. 4. Developmental psychology. I. Title. HM686 .R64 2003 305.231 — dc21 2002010393

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

For Salem, Luisa, Valerie, and David

with appreciation for their companionship

and support all along the way.

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a c k n o w l e d g m e n t s

I deeply appreciate the wisdom, support, and challenges of Beatrice Whit- ing , Lois and Ben Paul, Mike Cole, Sylvia Scribner, Shep White, Jerry Kagan, Roy Malpass, Marta Navichoc Cotuc, Encarnación Perez, Pablo Cox Bixcul, and the children and parents of San Pedro, who opened my eyes to patterns of culture and how to think about them.

I am grateful to the insightful discussions and questions of Cathy An- gelillo, Krystal Bellinger, Rosy Chang, Pablo Chavajay, Erica Coy, Julie Hollo- way, Afsaneh Kalantari, Ed Lopez, Eugene Matusov, Rebeca Mejía Arauz, Behnosh Najafi, Emily Parodi, Ari Taub, Araceli Valle, and my graduate and undergraduate students who helped me develop these ideas. I especially appreciate the suggestions of Debi Bolter, Maricela Correa-Chávez, Sally Duensing, Shari Ellis, Ray Gibbs, Giyoo Hatano, Carol Lee, Elizabeth Ma- garian, Ruth Paradise, Keiko Takahashi, Catherine Cooper, Marty Chemers, and Wendy Williams and the valuable assistance of Karrie André and Cindy White. The editorial advice of Jonathan Cobb, Elizabeth Knoll, Joan Bossert, and several anonymous reviewers greatly improved the book. I greatly appreciate the donors and UCSC colleagues who created the UCSC Foundation chair in psychology that supports my work.

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? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

? Orienting Concepts and Ways of Understanding the Cultural Nature of Human Development ?

Looking for Cultural Regularities ? One Set of Patterns: Children’s Age-Grading and Segregation from Community Endeavors or Participation in Mature Activities ?

Other Patterns ? Orienting Concepts for Understanding Cultural Processes ?? Moving Beyond Initial Assumptions ??

Beyond Ethnocentrism and Deficit Models ?? Separating Value Judgments from Explanations ??

Diverse Goals of Development ?? Ideas of Linear Cultural Evolution ?? Moving Beyond Assumptions of a Single Goal of Human

Development ?? Learning through Insider/Outsider Communication ??

Outsiders’ Position ?? Insiders’ Position ??

Moving between Local and Global Understandings ?? Revising Understanding in Derived Etic Approaches ?? The Meaning of the “Same” Situation across Communities ??

? Development as Transformation of Participation in Cultural Activities ??

A Logical Puzzle for Researchers ?? An Example: “We always speak only of what we see” ?? Researchers Questioning Assumptions ??

Concepts Relating Cultural and Individual Development ?? Whiting and Whiting’s Psycho-Cultural Model ?? Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System ?? Descendents ?? Issues in Diagramming the Relation of Individual and Cultural Processes ?? Sociocultural-Historical Theory ?? Development as Transformation of Participation

in Sociocultural Activity ??

? Individuals, Generations, and Dynamic Cultural Communities ??

Humans Are Biologically Cultural ?? Prepared Learning by Infants and Young Children ?? Where Do Gender Differences Come From? ??

Participation in Dynamic Cultural Communities ?? Culture as a Categorical Property of Individuals versus a Process of Participation in Dynamically Related Cultural Communities ??

The Case of Middle-Class European American Cultural Communities ??

Conceiving of Communities across Generations ??

? Child Rearing in Families and Communities ???

Family Composition and Governments ??? Cultural Strategies for Child Survival and Care ??? Infant-Caregiver Attachment ???

Maternal Attachment under Severe Conditions ??? Infants’ Security of Attachment ??? Attachment to Whom? ???

Family and Community Role Specializations ??? Extended Families ??? Differentiation of Caregiving, Companion, and Socializing Roles ??? Sibling Caregiving and Peer Relations ??? The Community as Caregiver ???

Children’s Participation in or Segregation from Mature Community Activities ??? Access to Mature Community Activities ???

x C O N T E N T S

“Pitching in” from Early Childhood ??? Excluding Children and Youth from Labor—

and from Productive Roles ??? Adults “Preparing” Children or Children Joining Adults ???

Engaging in Groups or Dyads ??? Infant Orientation: Face-to-Face with Caregiver versus Oriented to the Group ??? Dyadic versus Group Prototypes for Social Relations ??? Dyadic versus Multiparty Group Relations in Schooling ???

? Developmental Transitions in Individuals’ Roles in Their Communities ???

Age as a Cultural Metric for Development ??? Developmental Transitions Marking Change in Relation to the Community ??? Rates of Passing Developmental “Milestones” ???

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Age Timing of Learning ??? Mental Testing ??? Development as a Racetrack ???

According Infants a Unique Social Status ??? Contrasting Treatment of Toddlers and Older Siblings ??? Continuities and Discontinuities across Early Childhood ???

Responsible Roles in Childhood ??? Onset of Responsibility at Age 5 to 7? ??? Maturation and Experience ???

Adolescence as a Special Stage ??? Initiation to Manhood and Womanhood ??? Marriage and Parenthood as Markers of Adulthood ??? Midlife in Relation to Maturation of the Next Generation ??? Gender Roles ???

The Centrality of Child Rearing and Household Work in Gender Role Specializations ???

Sociohistorical Changes over Millennia in Mothers’ and Fathers’ Roles ???

Sociohistorical Changes in Recent Centuries in U.S. Mothers’ and Fathers’ Roles ???

Occupational Roles and Power of Men and Women ??? Gender and Social Relations ???

? Interdependence and Autonomy ???

Sleeping “Independently” ??? Comfort from Bedtime Routines and Objects ??? Social Relations in Cosleeping ???

C O N T E N T S xi

Independence versus Interdependence with Autonomy ??? Individual Freedom of Choice in an Interdependent System ??? Learning to Cooperate, with Freedom of Choice ???

Adult-Child Cooperation and Control ??? Parental Discipline ??? Teachers’ Discipline ???

Teasing and Shaming as Indirect Forms of Social Control ??? Conceptions of Moral Relations ???

Moral Reasoning ??? Morality as Individual Rights or Harmonious Social Order ??? Learning the Local Moral Order ??? Mandatory and Discretionary Concepts in Moral Codes ???

Cooperation and Competition ??? Cooperative versus Competitive Behavior in Games ??? Schooling and Competition ???

? Thinking with the Tools and Institutions of Culture ???

Specific Contexts Rather Than General Ability: Piaget around the World ???

Schooling Practices in Cognitive Tests: Classification and Memory ??? Classification ??? Memory ???

Cultural Values of Intelligence and Maturity ??? Familiarity with the Interpersonal Relations used in Tests ??? Varying Definitions of Intelligence and Maturity ???

Generalizing Experience from One Situation to Another ??? Learning to Fit Approaches Flexibly to Circumstances ??? Cultural Tools for Thinking ???

Literacy ??? Mathematics ??? Other Conceptual Systems ???

Distributed Cognition in the Use of Cultural Tools for Thinking ??? Cognition beyond the Skull ??? Collaboration in Thinking across Time and Space ??? Collaboration Hidden in the Design of Cognitive Tools and

Procedures ??? An Example: Sociocultural Development in Writing Technologies and

Techniques ??? Crediting the Cultural Tools and Practices We Think With ???