S A S ci February 22-26, 2006 Savannah, GA

1. “Baby-parading:” Child care or showing off? Paper presented at Symposium “Defining Childhood: Cross-cultural Perspectives”David F. LancyM. Annette GroveAnthropology Program SASci February 22-26, 2006 Savannah, GA

2. “Baby-parading:” Child care or showing off? Abstract Father-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.

3. The Western Perspective • Ideology • Research

4. 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).”

5. 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).”

6. ObservationalData Father’s not really that involved in: • Sweden • Japan • United States

7. Most Fathers Not Involved with Child Care

8. Reasons why • Distance from child’s mother; machisimo; rigid role definitions • father-child as mutually polluting • Employment • Death

9. 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

10. 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

11. Farmers vs. Foragers (Hewlett1991)

12. Aka—Male Status “Males gain greater fitness returns by engaging in status maintaining or resource accumulation than from child care activities...(Hames 1992).”

13. [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).”

14. Summarizing the Variation Three Groups • Contemporary, urbanized societies • Forest and Maritime Foragers • Misc. societies where fathers were either absent or avoidant

15. Baby-Parading Cases “[In Bali] it is common to see a man with his child in his arms, taking him every-whereand 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).”

16. “[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).”

17. “[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).”

18. But is this Child Care? Chick Magnet Jim and Dan wear their children

19. The Show-Off Hypothesis The “show-off” hypothesis was first proposed by Kristen Hawkes in 1991 to account for some unexpected behaviors of hunters.

20. Hunters • Pass up easy small prey for larger, more spectacular kills—inefficient • Distribute prey among community, not just own family • Improved mating

21. Baby-Paradingas “Showing Off”

22. 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).

23. Baby-Parading in the Media

27. 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