{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Varieties of childhood","description":"Childhood is a special time, a strange time. Children are adored and catered to\u2014they're given their own menus and bedrooms. They're considered delicate and precious, and so we cushion them from every imaginable risk. Kids are encouraged to play, of course\u2014but very often it's under the watchful eye of anxious adults. This, anyway, is how childhood looks in much of the United States today. But is this the way childhood looks everywhere? Is this the way human childhoods have always been? My guests today are Dr. Dorsa Amir and Dr. Sheina Lew-Levy. Dorsa is an Assistant Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience at Duke University, where she runs the Mind and Culture Lab. Sheina is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Durham University in the UK, where she co-directs the Forager Child Studies research group. Both Sheina and Dorsa have spent much of their careers thinking about how childhoods differ across cultures\u2014and why. In this conversation, I talk with Dorsa and Sheina about their fieldwork with indigenous groups in Ecuador and the Congo, respectively. We discuss the different ways that childhood differs in these places\u2014for instance, in terms of parents' attitudes toward risk, in terms of the social structures and activities in which kids are embedded, and in terms of the freedom that children are granted. We discuss developmental psychology's "WEIRD problem." We talk about the quasi-autonomous cultures that children create among themselves\u2014sometimes called "peer cultures"\u2014and discuss how these kid-driven cultures end up shaping and benefit the larger community. Along the way, we touch on adult supremacy, adverse childhood experiences, walking the forest and climbing papaya trees, parenting norms, ding dong ditch and "nananabooboo", the pioneering work of the folklorists Iona and Peter Opie, teaching, toys, and the enduring question of what childhood is for.   Alright friends, lots to think about here. On to my conversation with Sheina Lew-Levy and Dorsa Amir. Enjoy!   A transcript of this episode is available here.   Notes and links 9:30 \u2013 For an overview of work on how culture shapes motor development, see here. 11:00 \u2013 The paper by Dr. Lew-Levy\u2019s and a colleague about \u201cwalking the forest.\u201d 16:00 \u2013 Dr. Amir\u2019s TedX talk, \u2018How the Industrial Revolution Changed Childhood.\u2019 17:30 \u2013 For some of Dr. Amir\u2019s work on risk across cultures, see here. 35:00 \u2013 For a recent paper by Dr. Lew-Levy and colleagues about the evolution of childhood, see here. 39:00 \u2013 The popular article by Ann Gibbons, \u2018The Birth of Childhood.\u2019 41:00 \u2013 For the idea of the \u201cpatriarch hypothesis,\u201d see here. 42:00 \u2013 For more on the \u201cWEIRD problem\u201d in developmental psychology, see here. 48:00 \u2013 A paper by Dr. Lew-Levy and colleagues about toys in hunter-gatherer groups. For more on the material culture of childhood, see our earlier episode with Michelle Langley. 52:00 \u2013 A recent paper by Dr. Lew-Levy on the prevalence of \u201cchild-to-child\u201d teaching. 56:00 \u2013 A paper by Dr. Amir and a colleague about the concept of \u201cadverse childhood experiences\u201d in cross-cultural perspective. 1:04:00 \u2013 The paper by Dr. Amir and Dr. Lew-Levy on \u201cpeer cultures\u201d and children as agents of cultural adaptation. 1:08:00 \u2013 For more on the idea of children as the "research and development" wing of the species, see our earlier episode with Alison Gopnik. 1:10:00 \u2013 For more on the Opies, see here. 1:13:00 \u2013 For the work of (past guest) Olivier Morin on children\u2019s culture, see here. 1:23:00 \u2013 For the paper by Dr. Camilla Morelli, \u2018The River Echoes with Laughter,\u2019 see here.   Recommendations The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren, by Iona and Peter Opie The Gardener and the Carpenter, by Alison Gopnik The Anthropology of Childhood, by David Lancy Intimate Fathers, by Barry Hewlett   Many Minds is a project of the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute, which is made possible by a generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation to Indiana University. The show is hosted and produced by Kensy Cooperrider, with help from Assistant Producer Urte Laukaityte and with creative support from DISI Directors Erica Cartmill and Jacob Foster. Our artwork is by Ben Oldroyd. Our transcripts are created by Sarah Dopierala. Subscribe to Many Minds on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also now subscribe to the Many Minds newsletter here! We welcome your comments, questions, and suggestions. Feel free to email us at: manymindspodcast@gmail.com.    For updates about the show, visit our website or follow us on Twitter (@ManyMindsPod) or Bluesky (@manymindspod.bsky.social). ","author_name":"Many Minds","author_url":"https:\/\/disi.org\/manyminds\/","html":"