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Reality and Representation in the Cultural Psychology of Childcare: Incorporating a Critical PerspectiveThe University of Chicago, USA Cultural relativism and multiculturalism are very useful analytic frameworks. But when the cultural insider’s view becomes the entire story of the analysis, we are in danger of covering up or even legitimizing existing cultural dysfunction or oppressive inequality in the name of cultural relativism. The result is a significantly incomplete representation of social contexts of childcare. This commentary explores several possible areas of cultural dysfunction mentioned in DeLoache and Gottlieb’s (2000) book AWorld of Babies: Imagined Childcare Guides for Seven Societies, though not elaborated and explored for their possible impact on childcare. This is done in an effort to include some of the problematic aspects of childcare in cultural context that may have been left out of the DeLoache and Gottlieb volume. It is argued that a truly open-minded approach assumes that particular social practices or cultural ideas may be right or wrong, freely adopted or coerced, beneficial or detrimental. Not only does the experimental format of the book preclude such a critical relationship to cultural meaning and practice, it completely usurps the native voice, which seems unethical and, as Tomlinson and Swartz argue, obscures more than it illuminates.
Culture & Psychology, Vol. 9, No. 4,
499-506 (2003) |
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