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SASci February 22-26, 2006 Savannah, GA
“Baby-parading:” Child care or showing off?
Paper presented at Symposium “Defining Childhood: Cross-cultural Perspectives” David F. LancyM. Annette GroveAnthropology Program
“Baby-parading:” Child care or showing off?
AbstractFather-involvement is rare, among
primates, and surprisingly uncommon in human societies. Foraging societies in Central Africa are note-worthy in the very high level of father involvement, In other foraging societies there are
allusions to affectionate father-infant contact but not of significant
contributions to child care. By contrast, we find many examples of outright father-infant avoidance. But
our paper focuses on a range of societies where fathers engage in brief, very public nurturing of their offspring, something we’ve labeled
“baby-parading.” We speculate on its significance.
The Western Perspective
• Ideology
• Research
Ideology
In Sweden, fathers are “expected to be as capable and interested in active
caretaking of offspring, including infants, as are the mothers. This “soft”(mjuk) side of manhood has affectionately
been called the velveteen daddy phenomenon
(Welles-Nyström 1996).”
Research
In the US, children with non-involved fathers may “fail at school, develop behavioral and emotional problems, get into trouble with the law, engage
in early and promiscuous sexual activity, or become welfare dependent
later in life (Horn, 2003).”
ObservationalData
Father’s not really that involved in:
• Sweden • Japan
• United States
Most Fathers Not Involved with
Child Care
Reasons why
• Distance from child’s mother; machisimo; rigid role definitions
• father-child as mutually polluting
• Employment
• Death
Fathers in Foraging Societies
• high levels of father-infant play with infants among the Central African, forest-dwelling group, the Aka (Hewlett 1991)
• Yahgan, Garo Eipo, Himba foragers
Farmers vs. Foragers
• Ngandu farmers, near neighbors of the Aka, shows them spending far less time interacting with their infants.
• In farming communities like the Ngandu, high fertility is coupled with a less intense concern for a given infant’s welfare (Hewlett, 2000).
• Pursuing a different reproductive strategy
Farmers vs. Foragers
(Hewlett1991)
Population Location Subsistence % Time Father Present/in View
Rajput India Farming 3
Okinawan Japan Farming 3
Carib Belize Farming 3
Logoli Kenya Farming 5
Newars Nepal Farming 7
Samoans Samoa Farming 8
Mixteca Mexico Farming 9
Gusii Kenya Farming 10
Ifaluk Micronesia Farm-fish 13
Ilocano Philippines Farming 14
Kung Botswana Foraging 30
Aka Pygmies Central African Republic Foraging 88
Aka—Male Status
“Males gain greater
fitness returns by engaging in status
maintaining or resource
accumulation than from child care
activities...(Hames 1992).”
[Among the Yanomami] “men are not comfortable with infants, they are afraid, for one thing, of being urinated or defecated upon by a baby. When they carry young infants they do so with their arms slightly extended away from their bodies, reaching under the baby’s butt and around its back. Women carry infants placed firmly against their own bodies. If a child cries while a man is tending it, he will quickly pass it to a woman (Peters 1998).”
Summarizing the Variation
Three Groups1. Contemporary, urbanized societies
2. Forest and Maritime Foragers
3. Misc. societies where fathers were either absent or avoidant
Baby-Parading Cases
“[In Bali] it is common to see a man with his child in his arms, taking him every-where and talking to him as if he were a grown-up (Covarrubias 1937).”
“[Chipewyan] men are often seen walking around the village carrying their small children (Van Stone 1965).”
“[The Yanamamo father] takes it on his arm and
goes walking with it (Becher 1960).”
“Among the Eipo, fathers pick up their baby at the
women’s area and carry it…for half and hour or so,
getting friendly attention... (Eibl-Eibesfeldt 1983).”
“I saw [Maya] fathers holding their children…patting
them lovingly while they continued to talk with
friends (Elmdorf, 1976).”
“[The Dogon father is] very proud of his son…holding the child by the hand, [he] leads his little boy to the
public plaza where the toguna stands, the men's
shelter (Paulme 1940).”
“[A Fijian father] occasionally takes the child on his
back to attend a meeting or to visit a neighbor
(Thompson 1940).”
“It is a special occasion when [an Amhara] father lets
the infant ride on his shoulders…while going to visit
another hamlet (Messing 1985).”
But is this Child Care?
Jim and Dan wear their children
Chick Magnet
The Show-Off Hypothesis
The “show-off” hypothesis was first proposed by Kristen Hawkes in 1991 to account for some
unexpected behaviors of
hunters.
Hunters
• Pass up easy small prey for larger, more
spectacular kills—inefficient
• Distribute prey among community, not just own family
• Improved mating
Baby-Paradingas “Showing Off”
Fathers in the United States are more likely to provide more attentive care for their children in front of an audience (LaRossa & LaRossa 1981).
“In Canada, devoted dads are a hot commodity on the dating scene. Nurturing tendencies exhibited by single fathers are powerful magnets to women drawn to the vulnerable, compassionate traits associated with responsible parenting. The sight of an adoring male cooing and fawning over a young child is enough to attract a babe fest, say some fathers.” (Moyle 1999).
Baby-Parading in the Media
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Credits
• David Allan Harvey (1977) Malaysia: Youthful nation with growing pains. National Geographic, May: 646.
• Saldanha, Carlos and Wedge, Chris (2002) Ice Age, film. Hollywood: CA, 20thCentury Fox
• Feggo (2005) Cartoon. The New Yorker , September 19th.
• Mazda (2006) Available: (http://ad-rag.com/125544.php). Accessed: 02/13/06
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