The Anthropology of Childhood Quotes

“for much of human history, children were, and still are in most of the world, treated as a commodity.”
― David F. Lancy, The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings

“note that, where comparative data are available “people in [WEIRD] societies consistently occupy the extreme end of the … distribution [making them] one of the worst subpopulations one could study for generalizing about Homo sapiens” (Henrich et al. 2010: 63, 65, 79).”
― David F. Lancy, The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings

“In cases where mothers are forced to rear unwanted children, the young may suffer abuse severe enough to end their life.”
― David F. Lancy, The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings

“Although the specific details vary a great deal, a majority of the world’s societies delay the conferral of personhood.”
― David F. Lancy, The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings

“The view that many well-established theoretical positions in psychology cannot be as widely generalized as their authors assume was given a boost by a carefully argued paper published in 2010. Joe Henrich and colleagues challenged the very foundations of the discipline in arguing that psychologists fail to account for the influence of culture or nurture on human behavior. From a large-scale survey they determined that the vast majority of research in psychology is carried out with citizens – especially college students – of Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democracies (WEIRD). They note that, where comparative data are available “people in [WEIRD] societies consistently occupy the extreme end of the … distribution [making them] one of the worst subpopulations one could study for generalizing about Homo sapiens” (Henrich et al. 2010: 63, 65, 79).”
― David F. Lancy, The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings