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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