Books by David F. (Utah State University) Lancy

This Element examines the development of child helpers in varied cultural contexts, reviewing evidence for supportive environments in the ethnographic record versus an environment which extinguishes the drive to be helpful in WEIRD children. In the last section, the benefits of the helper stage are discussed.

Drawing on a lifetime's experience as an anthropologist, David F. Lancy takes us on a journey across the globe to show how children are raised differently in different cultures. Intriguing, and sometimes shocking, his discoveries demonstrate that our ideas about children are recent, untested, and often contrast starkly with those in other parts of the world.

Enriched with anecdotes from ethnography and the daily media, this revised edition examines family structure, reproduction, profiles of children's caretakers, their treatment at different ages, their play, work, schooling, and transition to adulthood. The result is a nuanced and credible picture of childhood in different cultures, past and present.