This book is an intellectual tour de force: a comprehensive Darwinian interpretation of human development. Looking at the entire range of human evolutionary history, Melvin Konner tells the compelling
This book is an intellectual tour de force: a comprehensive Darwinian interpretation of human development. Looking at the entire range of human evolutionary history, Melvin Konner tells the compelling
Nothing is more synonymous with the twenty-first century than the image of a child on his or her smart phone, tablet, video game console, television, and/or laptop. But with all this external stimulat
Brings the science of physical anthropology to bear on understanding how our evolutionary history has shaped a phenomenon everyone has experienced―childhood.The development of a fetus is an extraordinary biological process by itself, but the story of how we grow up began long before any of us were born. Paleoanthropological science has revealed that deep in our hominid lineage we began to diverge from other primates by giving birth to fatter, more helpless infants and developed one of humanity’s most striking adaptations―the evolution of childhood; a long period of dependence and social learning that makes us the animals we are today.Beginning with how the differences between humans and our primate cousins lead to difficult births, the book moves through the science of how our unlikely babies have spurred social and cultural adaptations, including the invention of ‘teenagers’ less than a century ago. We learn how anthropologists can interpret the physical evidence of the experience of
The ten novels explored in Critical Children portray children so vividly that their names are instantly recognizable. Richard Locke traces the 130-year evolution of these iconic child characters, mov
This collection is the first to specifically address our current understanding of the evolution of human childhood, which in turn significantly affects our interpretations of the evolution of family f
Mining Memory examines how twentieth-century narratives and films reimagine the self and the nation by representing child and adolescent protagonists and their evolution. The book shows that beyond re
?This book draws on archival, oral history and public policy sources to tell a history of foster care in Australia from the nineteenth century to the present day. It is, primarily, a social history wh
Jordan is a psychotic yet friendly zombie expert whose gender is never revealed. Having prepared for the zombie apocalypse since childhood, Jordan is thrilled when hordes of the infected undead finall
This book is intended to be a guide to the burgeoning literature on the history of childhood. Harry Hendrick reviews the most important debates and the main findings of a number of historians on a range of topics including the changing social constructions of childhood, child-parent relations, social policy, schooling, leisure and the thesis that modern childhood is 'disappearing'. The intention of this concise study is to provide readers with a reliable account of the evolution of some of the most important developments in adult-child relations during the last one hundred years. The author draws his material not only from historians but also from sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists and children's rights activists. Thus he successfully shows how much of our 'modern' understanding of childhood and of children results from both an historical and a social scientific understanding.
This book is intended to be a guide to the burgeoning literature on the history of childhood. Harry Hendrick reviews the most important debates and the main findings of a number of historians on a range of topics including the changing social constructions of childhood, child-parent relations, social policy, schooling, leisure and the thesis that modern childhood is 'disappearing'. The intention of this concise study is to provide readers with a reliable account of the evolution of some of the most important developments in adult-child relations during the last one hundred years. The author draws his material not only from historians but also from sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists and children's rights activists. Thus he successfully shows how much of our 'modern' understanding of childhood and of children results from both an historical and a social scientific understanding.
Becoming a Reader argues that, whatever our individual differences of personality and background, there is a regular sequence of attitudes we go through as we mature, which affect how we experience fiction, from the five-year-old child absorbed in the world of fantasy play, through the seventeen year old critical seeker of the truth, to the middle-aged reader recognizing their own experiences in fictional characters. Becoming a Reader argues that this sequence of responses can be worked out and described. The evidence for these claims is drawn from numerous studies of reading and from interviews with a great many readers, young and old. The developmental perspective provides a useful framework for assessing the implications of competing theories of reading and for charting the evolution of individual readers. Finally, in allowing us to predict our reading experience, the book allows us, as adults, to choose what to do with the power which reading gives us.
The study presented in this book imposes a developmental perspective on the psychopathology of offspring of depressed mothers. A primary theme is the interplay of factors in child (developmental stage, gender, temperament) and environment (depressed mother's symptomatic behaviour and family functioning) as contributors to psychiatric and psychosocial problems in offspring. Children and their families are followed from toddler-hood to the threshold of adulthood. The emergence and evolution of problems differ by mother's diagnosis - unipolar and bipolar depressed as well. Configurations of variables in the individual child are identified which, in combination, create diverse processes that put offspring at risk for specific problems. Early depressed mother–child relationships are strongly influential. Specific affective and temperament qualities of mother and child act reciprocally, increasing. The longitudinal data grasp the nature of connectedness of early experience to ongoing develop
The study presented in this book imposes a developmental perspective on the psychopathology of offspring of depressed mothers. A primary theme is the interplay of factors in child (developmental stage, gender, temperament) and environment (depressed mother's symptomatic behaviour and family functioning) as contributors to psychiatric and psychosocial problems in offspring. Children and their families are followed from toddler-hood to the threshold of adulthood. The emergence and evolution of problems differ by mother's diagnosis - unipolar and bipolar depressed as well. Configurations of variables in the individual child are identified which, in combination, create diverse processes that put offspring at risk for specific problems. Early depressed mother–child relationships are strongly influential. Specific affective and temperament qualities of mother and child act reciprocally, increasing. The longitudinal data grasp the nature of connectedness of early experience to ongoing develop
Human children grow at a uniquely slow pace by comparison with other mammals. When and where did this schedule evolve? Have technological advances, farming and cities had any effect upon it? Addressing these and other key questions in palaeoanthropology and bioarchaeology, Simon Hillson examines the unique role of teeth in preserving detailed microscopic records of development throughout childhood and into adulthood. The text critically reviews theory, assumptions, methods and literature, providing the dental histology background to anthropological studies of both growth rate and growth disruption. Chapters also examine existing studies of growth rate in the context of human evolution and primate development more generally, together with implications for life history. The final chapters consider how defects in the tooth development sequence shed light on the consequences of biological and social transitions, contributing to our understanding of the evolution of modern human development
This book brings together thirteen distinguished critics and scholars to explore children's art and its profound but rarely documented influence on the evolution of modern art. It shows that children'
Erik Erikson and the American Psyche is an intellectual biography which explores Erikson's contributions to the study of infancy, childhood and ethical development in light of ego psychology, object-r
