1. Individuals, Generations, and Dynamic Cultural Communities
Chapter 3

2. Conceptualizing the Role of Culture
Cultural vs. Biological
Similarities vs. Differences
Dynamic spiral process vs. static properties

3. Breast Feeding as a Function of Culture
Frequency and occurrence
Perceptions of necessity
Outcomes for children
Age of weaning ranged from 6 months to 5 ½ years in a worldwide sample of 52 societies (Sears & Wise, 1950, reported in Rogoff, 2003)
While older children tend to naturally wean themselves, premature weaning seem to lead to stress on children

4. Child Birthing Practices Across Cultures
Labor and delivery process
Use of technology and drugs
Variations in her position (sitting, squatting)
The kind of support she receives (hospital, home, Lamas)
Outcomes of children (i.e., Cesarean section) may contribute to children being born with genetic properties that would not have occurred under culturally different circumstances.
Consequently, genetic properties may be passed which might not have occurred without the technology or technique

5. Infant Sleeping and Breathing Patterns
In U.S., the goal is for children to sleep for 8 hours by 4 to 6 months
Some researchers speculate that encouraging infants to sleep all night may strain their immature neurological system to maintain itself over long sleep periods
In other cultures, infants wake and feed about every four hours around the clock for the first 8 months of life
Some research suggest that if infants sleep beside someone rather than alone, their breathing may be supported

6. Are infants born ready to learn?
Humans have a long period of infancy
Other animal species are born capable to do things humans require time to execute
Around the world, infants’ babbling has the same sounds up to about 6 months.
Between 6 months to 1 year, children begin to specialize in their mother’s tongue

7. Parent-Child Interaction and Modeling
Mayan mothers from Guatemala assist their daughters in learning to weave by segmenting the process into steps, providing guidance in the context of joint participation, and adjusting the daughter’s participation in weaving according to her increasing skill and interest (Rogoff, 2003; 1986)
Toddlers in India learn to distinguish the left hand from the right
Right hand used for eating; left hand for cleaning after defecation
EuroAmerican mothers use stimulation to guide childrens’ task development (i.e., shaking an object to promote attention and direction)

8. Vygotsky’s Framework for Understanding Culture
Ontogenetic Development
Change as a function of the individual life span
Phylogenetic Development
Changes to the species history and makeup thru genes
Cultural-Historical Development
Changes across decades and centuries, leaving a legacy for individuals in the form of symbolic and material technologies
Microgenetic Development
Moment to moment learning of individuals in particular contexts, built on the individual’s genetic and cultural-historical background

9. Gender Differences as a Function of Culture
Biological Preparation of Gender Roles
Gender differences are a function of investment in procreation.
Women need to invest in longer periods of time to ensure their genes are passed.
To ensure the genetic tradition for a woman, she must carry a child for nine months
2 to 3 years of nursing
Years protecting and teaching to prepare for procreation
Men require less investment to pass their genetic tradition as they may father a child through multiple women
Men cannot always be completely certain a particular child is theirs. In many cases, this becomes a criteria for fathering.

10. Gender Differences as a Function of Culture Cont.
Gender Role Training
Children develop gender roles through the models respective to one’s culture.
In many cultures, behaviors are increasingly reinforced as a function of gender
Examples:
In many cultures girls are placed under greater social pressure to maintain cleanliness and protect their clothing
Girls tend to receive more training for proper social behavior than do boys
Boys tend to be given greater latitude for becoming adventurous and risk-taking
Girls tend to be socialized to do chores and participate in child rearing tasks at earlier ages than boys. Boys typically inherit these roles in the absence of a family of female siblings.

11. Gender Distinctions/Child Development
Children tend to be more rigid than adults in their definitions of gender roles
In many cultures, learning of roles consists of adult guides (scaffolding and modeling)
Girls are often assigned chores close in proximity to ensure observation and feedback

12. Challenge to Understanding Culture and Community
Categories of culture and community are to multiple and complex
Definition of community must be further operationalized:
Community is not just a collection of people but also people with shared organization, values understanding, history, and practices

13. According to John Dewey
“There is more than a verbal tie between the words common, community, and communication. People live in a community in virtue of the things which they have in common; and communication is the way in which they come to possess things in common” (Dewey, 1916, p5)
Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education. New York: MacMillan.

14. More on Community
A community involves people working together with a similar purpose
Multiple generations moving through it with shared customs that are passed between generation
Is community a function of participation or membership?