Adults and Peers as Agents of Socialization: A Highland Guatemalan ProfileAuthor(s): Barbara RogoffSource: Ethos, Vol. 9, No. 1 (Spring, 1981), pp. 18-36Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/640086 .Accessed: 21/07/2011 11:07

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Adults and Peers as Agents

of Socialization:

A Highland Guatemalan Profile

BARBARA ROGOFF

The social context in which children acquire skills and values is receiving increasing attention as researchers attempt to understand the social ecology of children's everyday learning experiences (Bronfenbrenner 1979; Kessel 1979; Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition, n.d.; Mishler 1979; Shweder 1979). Whiting and her colleagues (1979, 1980) particularly stress the importance of the company children keep. Whiting maintains that behavior is developed in the settings that a child frequents, and that the most important features of a setting are the cast of characters, especially their age and sex.

Developmentalists have recently shifted from the view that adults (or more specifically, mothers) are the major influence on children, to consider the importance of other children in socialization (e.g.,

BARBARA ROGOFF is Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112.

The author wishes to thank the children of San Pedro and Elena Hurtado, Manuela Hi de Cotuc, Maria Gonzales Quiacaln, and Ana Gonzales Hi for their part in carrying out the observations. Daniel Holly, Shari Ellis, and Joanne Begay provided assistance in analysis and preparation of the data. Martha Zaslow, Cathie Jordan, David Lubin, Jean Ispa, Salem Magarian, Donna Gelfand, Cindy Cromer, and Donald Hartmann gave helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Various parts of this study were supported by funds from the In- stitute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama, the Department of Psychology and Social Relations of Harvard University, and the Department of Psychology of the University of Utah. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the meeting of the Society for Cross- Cultural Research, New Haven, 1978.

ETHOS 9:1 SPRING 1981 Copyright ? 1981 by the Society for Psychological Anthropology

0091-2131/81/010018-19$2.30/1

18

AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION 19

Allen 1976; Cicerelli 1976; Hartup 1970; Jordan 1978; Zaslow and

Rogoff 1978). Interactions between children are now viewed as an

important arena in which values and beliefs are transmitted, sex roles learned, adult behaviors practiced, dominance hierarchies

determined, the foundations of future working and friendship rela- tions established, and the ability to take another's perspective developed (Hartup 1977; Hollos 1980; Piaget 1926).

A number of authors have discussed possible cultural differences in the extent of children's interaction with adults versus other children. A well-known example is Bronfenbrenner's (1970:115) contrast of United States peer groups with Soviet children's collec- tives in which peer contacts are closely monitored by adults and reinforce adult values:

The Soviet peer group is heavily . . . influenced by the adult society. In contrast, the American peer group is relatively autonomous, cut off from the adult world -a

particularly salient example of segregation by age.

Evidence that children in the United States are highly segregated from adults, particularly in the realm of work, is also discussed by Crouter (1979) and Hentoff (1976). Bronfenbrenner speculates that because of the failure of adults in the United States to supervise and become involved in informal children's groups, the behaviors sup- ported and encouraged by peers in the United States are at odds with those encouraged by adults.

Bronfenbrenner's and Crouter's views seem to be inconsistent with evidence offered by Whiting and Whiting (1975) that children from Orchard Town, USA were more frequently in the presence of adults than were children from five less technological societies. Orchard Town 3 to 6-year-olds were in direct interaction with adults in 60% of all their social interactions, whereas in Kenya and Okinawa the

figures were 13% and 9%, respectively (Whiting 1977). These observations suggest that children's segregation from adults may follow a different pattern in nonindustrial societies than in countries like the United States or the Soviet Union.

An important factor in discussions of children's contact with adults is whether the adults are taking part in the children's ac- tivities (as described above by Bronfenbrenner), or the children are

participating in adult activities. Coleman et al. (1972) report that shared activities between fathers and sons in the United States focus

20 ETHOS

on the interests of the son (e.g., Boys Scouts or Little League). Perhaps in less technological societies the adults have less need to take an active role in children's activities because the children are able to play a part in adult activities. Their involvement necessitates less direct adult tutelage of skills and values for the socialization of children to adult roles. Such a speculation changes the issue from a simple comparison of frequency of companionship with adults ver- sus peers to a more elaborated examination of the nature of children's activities with adults and with peers.

The present paper examines the extent and circumstances (i.e., ongoing activity and location) of children's contact with adults and peers in a rural agricultural town in Highland Guatemala. It is ex- pected that the children will be found near adults frequently, but will seldom be actively interacting with them. The occasions on which children are expected to be actively interacting with adults in- volve their assisting in adult activities, rather than adults' par- ticipating in children's activities.

METHOD

General Characteristics of the Sample. The observed children live in San Pedro la Laguna, a Mayan Indian town of 5,000 in

Highland Guatemala. The town is a densely populated center, with

steep agricultural lands extending around it on the flanks of the volcano San Pedro, and with Lake Atitlan as the lower boundary of the town. The main economic activity of the men is agriculture, and that of the women is weaving with the backstrap loom. An increas-

ing number of men and women are merchants. The children pro- vide help in family endeavors, and about 70% of them attend school for several years beginning at age 7 or 8.

General Procedure for the Observations. Contact with adults and peers for these Mayan children was studied using spot observa- tion (ohnson 1973; Munroe and Munroe 1971; Rogoff 1978). This is a relatively unobtrusive method in which the observer records in- formation obtained from the first glance at the target child, usually before the observer's presence has been noticed. Munroe and Munroe (1975) have termed such an observation a "mental snap- shot." Upon locating the target child, the observer notices the child's

activity, companions, and general location, usually requiring an ex- tended glance to understand the context of the activity. The

AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION 21

observer records the information from this brief glance, and may supplement the observation with questions to the child or compan- ions regarding such things as age or relationship of companions.

The observations were limited to afternoon hours, from about 1

p.m. to 6 p.m., in order to avoid the hours in which many children attend school. (Children attend school only in the morning.) Obser- vations took place an equal number of times on each of 6 days of the week over a 2 to 3-month period. Two sets of observations were car- ried out in different years, each time during the beginning of the

rainy season, a busy agricultural time. The first set of observations

(Study 1) provide information on the frequency and nature of 0 to

14-year-old children's adult and peer companionship. The second set of observations (Study 2) investigates the circumstances of in-

teracting with adults vs. with peers, for a large group (n = 60) of

9-year-olds. The observers used the following general procedure: Each obser-

vation day they searched in random order for a subset of the children from the list of sample children. First they went to a child's home. If the child was at home, the observer noted the child's com-

panions, activity, location, etc., usually before the observer's

presence was noted. If the child was not at home, the observer in-

quired as to the child's location and searched for the child. Since the town is small (about 1 square kilometer), the children were located in most cases. Data for occasions in which the child was not actually observed by the observer were excluded for Study 1, but it was decided for Study 2 to include parental reports since parents seemed to have accurate knowledge of the child's whereabouts, activity, and

companions. (This accuracy was verified on the occasions when the observer found the child away from home after receiving parental reports of the child's location and activity.) For Study 2, the target children were actually located and observed for 80% of the attempts to observe them, and in another 15% of the attempted observations the parents' reports were accepted. For the remaining observations, no information was available.

Other differences in procedure between the two studies are specified as each study is discussed. Slightly different methods were required because each set of data served to answer other questions not reported here.

After the observer found the target child (or after she determined that she could not locate the child) she continued down the list to

22 ETHOS

the next target child. Thus on any one observation, only one child was observed as the target, and others present were coded only as

companions since they had not been the target of the observation. The unit of analysis was the individual child, rather than the in-

dividual observation, in order to insure independence of data

points. Each target child received scores consisting of the percentage for each variable of total observations for that child. An observation was counted only once in the summary score for each child, even if both adult and child companions were present. If both adult and child companions were present in a particular observation, the observation was split and half "credit" given on that observation for each category (adult companion and child companion).

STUDY 1

Subjects. In Study 1, the observed children were from a broad

age range: 6 months to 14 years. They were selected by age and sex from a random stratified (by parental wealth and modernity of oc-

cupation) sample of the entire population of the town. Ages were verified in accurate municipal birth records. The age distribution of the 48 boys and 52 girls was as follows: 1 to 2 years (14 children), 3 to 4 years (19 children), 5 to 6 years (12 children), 7 to 8 years (20 children), 9 to 10 years (16 children), and 11 to 14 years (23 children). Each child was observed from 2 to 6 times (median equals 4), for a total of 426 observations.

Observers. A single team of observers, consisting of a local woman and a nonlocal (but Guatemalan) woman, carried out all of the observations together. The observers assessed their reliability by visiting (and being visited by) a similar team working in another town a few kilometers away, and performing a separate set of observations

simultaneously with the other team. (These observations were part of a larger study reported by Kagan et al. 1979). Agreement be- tween the two teams ranged from 91% to 97% of the observations.

Results and Discussion. In analyzing the children's contacts, two levels of involvement with companions can be distinguished: (1) A

companion may be simply a person who is near the child, of whose

presence the child seems to be aware ("presence"). The child and the companion may be looking up at each other occasionally, but

they are not necessarily involved in the same activity or interacting. (2) The companions may be interacting or working side by side in

AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION 23

the same activity ("interaction"). Bronfenbrenner's (1970) concern with "active participation in the lives of children" corresponds to the latter level of direct interaction.

Figure 1 shows the difference in incidence of being in the presence of an adult vs. being in direct interaction with an adult. Children are commonly in the presence of an adult, but with a significant decrease over childhood. An age (6) x sex (2) analysis of variance shows a significant main effect for age, F(5,92) = 7.19, p < .001, and no significant effect for sex, F (1,92) = 0.56. On the other hand, direct interaction with adults is infrequent. It drops off rapid- ly after infancy, with little direct interaction occurring after age 4. The main effect for age is highly significant, F (5,92) = 38.30, p < .001, and again there is no sex difference, F (1,92) = 0.39.

The infrequency of direct interaction with adults reflects at least in part the lack of necessity for direct supervision. Some urban

dangers are notably missing in this community: getting kidnapped, hit by a car, or lost. The town in small and densely populated with

90-

80-

70- in presence of an adult

60-

50-

40-

rrl

it

L__ 1-L_ 30-

20-

10-

total observations (across irndividucls)

in direct interaction with an adult

.

-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 CHILD'S AGE IN YEARS

64

9-10 11-14

87 52 78 59 86

Figure 1. Mean percentage of observations in which children aged 1 to 14 years were in the presence of or in direct interaction with an adult.

Il0 J I

24 ETHOS

people who are generally acquainted. Children are seldom far from watchful adults if help is needed, so it is not necessary that the child above about age 3 years have a one-to-one caretaker. An anecdote illustrates the lack of necessity for supervision: one autonomous

3-year-old child generally went to evening church meetings by herself, since she was more religious than the rest of the family. She would put on her shawl about 7:30 p.m. (well after dusk) and walk the four blocks to church, returning about 2 hours later. There was little reason for concern about her safety.

Figure 2 shows that the adults available to children are far more

likely to be women than men. This finding is true at all ages ob- served, but especially during early childhood. In infancy children are in the presence of women an average of 70% or 80% of the occa- sions; in early adolescence this figure drops to about 40% or 45% of the occasions. The main effect for age (on being in the presence of a woman) is significant, F(5,92) = 4.13, p < .002. Girls appear to be with women slightly (nonsignificantly) more than are boys, F(1,92) = 2.92, p < .09.

The amount of contact with men is generally low for both sexes

(averaging between 0% and 28%). The age and sex effects are both

slight but nonsignificant, F (5,92) = 2.16, p < .07; F (1,92) =

3.11, p < .08, respectively. The greater likelihood of children being in the presence of women

than of men is largely due to the exodus during the day of a large proportion of men to tend their fields at a distance from town or to

engage in business in other towns. Not until about age 8 do the boys begin to accompany their fathers. The women for the most part stay in town, tending the home, preparing food, and engaging in the

cottage industry of weaving. They are thus more likely to be in the

presence of the children. The frequency of observations in which the children are in the

presence of any other children is shown in Figure 3. This curve shows no drop from infancy as was seen in adult companionship, but rather an increase from infancy to age 5 or 6 and a decrease after

age 9 to 10. A test for quadratic trend shows a highly significant ef- fect of this increase and decrease with age, F (1,98) = 14.39, p < .001. No sex differences are evident in amount of contact with other children or in the pattern of change with age.

By age 5 or 6, children have joined in companionship with other children and freed themselves from direct interaction with adults.

AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION 25

100-- girls

~~~~~~~90 ?~- ---"~ bboys 90 -- z

80- \

c 70 - CD

c 60- ?

6 ^^\ Il^S SIN PRESENCE

Se~ ~~>50- ". '

^^~~~~~~ OF WOMEN 50-- '...

40-

3 \0- IN PRESENCE 20- ^ OF MEN

1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10 11-14 total observations CHILD'S AGE IN YEARS (across individuals)

girls: 27 44 19 46 40 55 boys: 37 43 33 32 19 31

Figure 2. Mean percentage of observations in which girls and boys aged 1 to 14 years were in

the presence of women or men.

After the age of weaning (about 2 years) children are tended almost

exclusively by other children rather than adults, until about age 4 when they receive little direct supervision from either adults or older children. Usually weaning occurs about the time of the birth of the next sibling, so the mother's attention is diverted to the new baby. Children above age 2 or 3 are seldom seen sitting on adult laps or

seeking adult attention. Rather, their companions are their siblings, cousins, and neighbor children. Whiting (1979) notes that Kenyan graduate students at Harvard are surprised to see United States children seeking interaction with their parents in preference to sib-

lings. Weisner and Gallimore (1977), Graves (1976), and Malinow- ski (1929) report similar observations.

Both children and adults in San Pedro act as if their worlds are

separate. Children as young as 4 years may return home just at mealtime, and spend the day wandering freely around the neighbor-

26 ETHOS

100- 0 With any child

90- - w___ ith same-age child

80-

70-

z 60-

u 50- / \ 50-

z 40- uL 2 30-

20-

10-

V I i I I

1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10 11-14

CHILD'S AGE IN YEARS

Figure 3. Mean percentage of observations in which children aged 1 to 14 years were in the

presence of children of any age, and in the presence of children of the exact same age.

hood, sometimes exploring or playing in small bands. When they are at home, they spend little time chatting with adults, but may listen and observe adult conversation and activities extensively. Adult conversation proceeds as if the children are not

present-when an adult gossips, he or she looks around to be sure no other adults are listening, but pays no attention to the presence of even an unrelated child.

The decrease in companionship with other children after age 9 to 10 corresponds to the children's greater work responsibilities. Rather than exploring or playing with other children, they are more likely to stay home tending the house or weaving, or going to water the onions or to gather wood or fodder. At this age, children's respon- sibilities become serious (Rogoff, in press; Rogoff et al., in press).

Of secondary interest is the information shown in Figure 3 regard- ing frequency of being in the presence of peers of the same exact

age. This strict age range corresponds roughly to the criterion (being within 6 months of the same age) used by Konner (1975) in his argu-

AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION 27

ment that same-age companionship is rare in human history. As Figure 3 indicates, such strictly age-segregated companionship is in- deed rare in San Pedro, occurring in less than 10% of the observa- tions. This finding is not surprising, given the lack of attention paid to chronological age and birth dates in this society. However, a re- cent study (Ellis et al. 1979) finds strict age-segregation to be equally rare in an urban United States population.

STUDY 2

Study 2 investigates the circumstances of children's interactions with adults and with peers, in extensive observations of a large sam- ple of children of one age.

Subjects. A sample of 60 9-year-old children was selected on the basis of age and sex from accurate municipal birth records. The sample included most of the schoolchildren aged 8 years 7 months to 10 years 0 months (mean, 9 years 2 months) from three of the five neighborhoods of the town, representing a broad spectrum of modernity and wealth. Each of 30 boys and 30 girls was a target child for 30 observations, resulting in a total of 1,708 completed observations. Only four children were in the samples of both Study 1 and Study 2.

In Study 2, peers were children whose ages were within approx- imately 2 years of that of the target child, that is, from roughly age 7 to 11 years. Interactions with children of any age were also exa- mined, but since the vast majority of these interactions were with children within 2 years of the target's age, only the peer (and not the "any-age" child) companionship is compared with adult compan- ionship in this report.

Observers. Two local young women (with third and sixth grade educations) worked independently except for 9% of the observations (spread throughout the 3-month observation period), which were carried out simultaneously for reliability testing. Their observations showed 98% agreement, calculating (agreements) divided by (agreements plus disagreements) for all variables combined. The lowest reliability was for the variable "location of target child," which showed 96% agreement.

Results. For Study 2, the analysis is based on observations of direct interaction only (not on the incidence of simply being in the

28 ETHOS

presence of another person). The data reveal that direct interaction is much more likely to occur with similar-aged children (within 2

years of the target child's age) than with adults. The 9-year-olds were in direct interaction with adults on an average of 18% of the occasions, while children aged 7 to 11 were their interacting compan- ions on an average of 50% of the observations. Like Study 1, the results of Study 2 suggest that the children are relatively rarely in direct interaction with adults.

Study 2 also investigates the influence of the children's activities and their locations on the type of interacting companions with whom they are found. Figure 4 shows direct interactions with adults vs. peers (aged 7 to 11) when the 9-year-olds were engaged in various activities. (For these analyses, the observations include only those in which a child was involved in the activity in question. Therefore, the

degrees of freedom reported below vary from activity to activity, depending on the number of children involved in a particular activi-

ty. The results are summed across sexes, since in activities which in- volve both sexes, the same pattern is evident for both.) Several pat- terns of contact are apparent in the different activities: adults are

quite rare and peers common as interacting companions in play ac-

tivities, correlated t (59) = 12.56, p < .001. The few occasions in which adults and children are together in a play activity most com-

monly involve watching a neighborhood television set. When children are doing errands and caring for young children, adults are

relatively more common companions than when the children are

playing, but still significantly less common than are peers (respec- tively, t (51) = 3.95, p < .001; t (29) = 3.98, p < .001). When the children are collecting fodder or feeding it to the animals, peers are

slightly more common companions than adults, t (24) = 1.87, p < .08. There is no significant difference between adults and peers as

companions when children are involved in housework, tortilla

preparation, or weaving. Adults are significantly more frequent as

companions than are peers when the children are involved in

agricultural work, t (19) = 3.64, p < .002. Consideration of the usual location of the activities shown in

Figure 4 reveals that the pattern of contact is closely tied to the ac-

tivity's usual location. The activities in which adults are relatively more common occur at some distance from town or at home. The

activities in which peers predominate are those which occur away from home but within the neighborhood.

AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION 29

A Adult carni on

[] Peer conpanion

ERRAND n = 52

IL HOUSEWORK

n - 28

CHILDCARE n =30

AGRICULTURE n 20

Figure 4. Mean number of observations in which 9-vear-old children involved in various ac- tivities were interacting with adults vs. peers.

Figure 5 shows, for various locations (regardless of activity), the

proportion of observations in which 9-year-old children are found

interacting with adults or with peers. An examination of the figure shows that the most likely locations for adult-child interaction are at home or outside of town. The most likely location for having a peer companion is away from home but within a block of home. (The same pattern is found for both sexes.)

Figures 4 and 5 show that the type of interacting companion is

3

._

--

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4-i u 0

._

L_

C- 0

CX

-o

c-

8

LD

C/

2-

1t

3t

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I+

PLAY 51=60

FODDER 11 - 2

j

9.05-

/ H

30 ETHOS

heavily influenced by whether the child is involved in play or work

activities, and if involved in work activities, by the location in which the work ordinarily takes place.

DISCUSSION

Results of Studies 1 and 2 indicate that although children were

often in the presence of an adult, direct interaction with an adult

was infrequent. Children's contact with adult females dropped off

steadily over the ages 1 to 14 years. Their contact with adult males

was infrequent throughout childhood. As adult contact dropped over the early childhood years, the frequency of being in the

presence of other children increased to about age 10, and then

decreased. At age 9 years, the children were in direct interaction

with adults in only 18% of the observations while they were with

peers (aged 7 to 11 years) in ab6ut 50% of the observations. A rough comparison with observations of United States children's

i- so

80-

N 70-

60

-?

L5 40-

_- 30-

20-

10

sLubjects n= observat ions n=

i Adult ccipanion

n Peer ca,panion

AT IN BLOCK IN TIiN OUTSKIRTS (excluding haoe) (excluding block)

60 59 683 377

56 355

OTHER TOWN

50 12 263 31

Figure 5. Mean percent of observations in which 9-year-old children at various locations

were interacting with adults vs. peers.

AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION 31

contact with adults can be made using Whiting and Whiting's (1975) Orchard Town data. Being in the presence of an adult (not necessarily in direct interaction) was slightly more frequent for United States 3 to 11-year-old children (84%) than for the Mayan children in this study (about 60%) or the children of the other five cultures reported on by the Whitings.' Ellis et al. (1979) report that in the United States, 8 to 10-year-olds are in direct interaction with adults to approximately the same extent as the 9-year-olds of the present study. United States children appear to be at least as likely to have an adult companion as children in less technological cultures.

These findings suggest modification of Bronfenbrenner's (1970) statement that United States socialization is extreme in its lack of ac- tive participation of adults in the lives of children. Although it may be true for the comparison between Soviet and United States socialization, when the adult contacts of United States children are compared to those of children in less technological cultures, the statement seems not to be true.

In the case of the Mayan children, infrequency of contact with adults does not seem to have the consequences which concern Bronfenbrenner: values and skills at variance with those of the adult world. The Mayan children emulate adults. Their play involves a great deal of imitation of adult roles (comprising 66% of their nongame play). They are eager to participate in the economic ac- tivities of the household. Their contribution begins at about age 5 and is significant by age 10 (Rogoff et al. in press). When asked about their occupational aspirations, almost all of them report ex- pecting to fill the same occupations as their parents.

The circumstances of the Mayan children's contact with adults may encourage their easy assimilation into adult roles. Adults are not involved in children's activities; they are very seldom compan- ions in play. Rather, children's contact with adults occurs when children are involved in adult activities, performing chores embed- ded in adult economic or domestic pursuits. The chores which

1 The comparison with the Orchard Town data is only rough since more of the Orchard Town observations were made in the house or yard than were made in those settings in any of the other cultures. It is consistent with the present paper's emphasis on setting effects that, for the six cultures, the pattern of frequency of adult presence paralleled the percentage of obser- vations which occurred in the house or yard (Whiting and Whiting 1975).

32 ETHOS

engender the most frequent adult-child interaction are those which are performed either at home, or at a relatively great distance from home. These are locations in which the adults are ordinarily carry- ing out their work, or in which children need supervision in order to

participate. At intermediate distances, the children's work activities are carried out more commonly in the company of peers.

In industrial societies, children are not capable of helping or are not allowed to help with much of the adult work. They do not have as much contact with their parents' full roles as in simpler societies, so they cannot imitate and practice them in play. In such cir- cumstances, adults may need to spend time directly teaching the children in order to ensure the transmission of adult skills,

knowledge, and values. Perhaps only when adult roles are not readi-

ly observable by children (or when alternatives are available and children do not expect to fill the same roles as the adults around

them) may a need exist for adults to impose themselves on children and children's groups.

Several authors have suggested that in many cultures, children are socialized through informal instruction, observation of their

elders, and participation in the simpler aspects of an activity as com-

petence develops (Fortes 1938; Kenyatta 1953; Mead 1964; Scribner and Cole 1973). Parents of the Mayan 9-year-olds, when asked how

they taught the children chores or manners, replied that the children just pick them up by observing the behavior of siblings or

parents (Rogoff 1977). In fact, of the 1,708 observations of 9-year- olds, native observers could identify only six occasions as teaching situations outside of school or church school. In an induced teaching interaction, Mayan mothers used more demonstration and less ver- bal instruction with their 9-year-old children than did United States mothers (Rogoff n.d.). The cultural differences in instructional pat- terns suggest that adult's direct tuition out of the context of par- ticipation is less likely if children can participate in the settings and roles of the adults' world. If so, the learners can be counted on to do most of the work of socialization themselves, by watching their elders (including older children) and gradually becoming more cen-

trally involved, in a process which Benedict (1955) calls "continuity of cultural conditioning."

The accounts of several other researchers suggest that adults in in- dustrialized societies are more concerned with actively teaching their children than are adults in simpler societies. Harkness and

AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION 33

Super (1977:327) found that Kipsigis mothers of 2 to 3-1/2-year-old children take "a much less active role in teaching their chilren to talk. Only 25% of the mothers, for example, mentioned language teaching as a reason that one should talk to babies, and the majority of the mothers judged that children learn to talk primarily from other children." In the USSR, on the other hand, the manual for

upbringers in the Soviet preschool program prescribes that "the up- bringer exploits every moment spent with the child for the develop- ment of speech" (Bronfenbrenner 1970:18). Blount (1972) noted that in an American sample, 2-1/2-year-old children seemed to be allocated "conversational peer status" by adults. Their opinions were asked; they were given choices; they were encouraged to in- itiate conversational rounds with adults. In contrast, in Blount's Luo and Samoan samples, the adults initiated almost all of the in- teractions, making commands or requests. They almost never re-

quested the child to be a playmate with an adult, as did United States adults.

In contrasting the dual socialization experienced by Navajo youth placed in missionary foster families on "Mormon Placement," Top- per (1979: 147-148) emphasizes the intensive parent-child interac- tion required by the Mormon religion.

The Mormon foster parent devotes a great deal of his or her time to instructing the

Navajo foster child in how to think and behave like a Mormon ... The Navajo parent normally does not spend time instructing a child and supervising its perfor- mance. He or she shows the child how to perform a task and then expects that it will learn how to do it through repeated observation. A great deal of actual instruction in how and why to do various activities usually comes from the child's other

siblings. . .

In this case, the active instruction which occurs in the more complex technological setting may also result from the necessity of more ac- tive intervention in the socialization of an individual who comes late to socialization by the missionary group, from a conflicting background.

Seymour (1975:52) found that in traditional families in India "there was little concept of 'child rearing' per se. People assumed that, given time, children would grow up and absorb the norms and values of those around them." In moder Indian families, on the other hand, parents expressed concern about child care and their children's development.

34 ETHOS

Whiting (1980) suggests that the power of parents and other

agents of socialization is in their assignment of children to particular settings, such as requiring a child to tend an infant, to work around home or in the fields, to attend school, or to get out from under- foot. Much of this assignment is determined, however, not by the agents of socialization themselves, but by constraints placed on adults by the society's technology and their own responsibilities. In a

complex industrial society, children's access to observation of adults in adult activities is restricted, resulting in an unusual necessity for more formal transmission of skills and values from adults to children. The socialization may be accomplished by adults entering children's realms and organizing their activities.

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