Cultural Selves
A bstract : Recent cross‐cultural studies of child development reveal that child rearing, while strikingly culturally variable, is everywhere designed to make the child's experience of important lessons constant, to link those lessons to emotional arousal, and to connect them to evaluations of...
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crwiley:10.1196/annals.1279.010 2024-10-06T13:47:29+00:00 Cultural Selves QUINN, NAOMI 2003 http://dx.doi.org/10.1196/annals.1279.010 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1196%2Fannals.1279.010 https://nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1196/annals.1279.010 en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences volume 1001, issue 1, page 145-176 ISSN 0077-8923 1749-6632 journal-article 2003 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1279.010 2024-09-11T04:18:07Z A bstract : Recent cross‐cultural studies of child development reveal that child rearing, while strikingly culturally variable, is everywhere designed to make the child's experience of important lessons constant, to link those lessons to emotional arousal, and to connect them to evaluations of the child's goodness and badness. These claims are illustrated from research on Americans, Chinese, Germans, Gusii (Kenya), Ifaluk (Micronesia), and Inuit (Baffin Island). These three universal features of child rearing accomplish what is a highly specialized task. Constancy of experience alters synaptic connections to grant the pattern of their firing especially high‐resolution, so that the lessons to be learned are unmistakable ones. Accompanied by emotional arousal, these lessons are especially motivating and unforgettable. Brought home with evaluations of the learner's goodness and badness, these lessons are even more motivating and unforgettable. Children get the point of the lesson, enact it once they get it, and remember to enact it on subsequent occasions. Cultural models of child rearing, thus, exploit the neural capacities of the children so reared, to achieve a result, human adulthood, that could not be accomplished by the human brain alone. From exposure to these practices result distinctive cultural selves. These selves are partly implicit, based on the largely unmarked practices designed to make children's experience of important lessons constant and these lessons arousing, and partly explicit, based on the labeling and other marking that connects these lessons to evaluations of children's goodness and badness. The conscious, self‐reflective self that emerges from such explicit evaluation lays the basis for identity—everywhere profoundly culturally shaped, infused with powerful evaluative meanings, and itself highly motivating. Article in Journal/Newspaper Baffin Island Baffin inuit Wiley Online Library Baffin Island Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1001 1 145 176 |
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A bstract : Recent cross‐cultural studies of child development reveal that child rearing, while strikingly culturally variable, is everywhere designed to make the child's experience of important lessons constant, to link those lessons to emotional arousal, and to connect them to evaluations of the child's goodness and badness. These claims are illustrated from research on Americans, Chinese, Germans, Gusii (Kenya), Ifaluk (Micronesia), and Inuit (Baffin Island). These three universal features of child rearing accomplish what is a highly specialized task. Constancy of experience alters synaptic connections to grant the pattern of their firing especially high‐resolution, so that the lessons to be learned are unmistakable ones. Accompanied by emotional arousal, these lessons are especially motivating and unforgettable. Brought home with evaluations of the learner's goodness and badness, these lessons are even more motivating and unforgettable. Children get the point of the lesson, enact it once they get it, and remember to enact it on subsequent occasions. Cultural models of child rearing, thus, exploit the neural capacities of the children so reared, to achieve a result, human adulthood, that could not be accomplished by the human brain alone. From exposure to these practices result distinctive cultural selves. These selves are partly implicit, based on the largely unmarked practices designed to make children's experience of important lessons constant and these lessons arousing, and partly explicit, based on the labeling and other marking that connects these lessons to evaluations of children's goodness and badness. The conscious, self‐reflective self that emerges from such explicit evaluation lays the basis for identity—everywhere profoundly culturally shaped, infused with powerful evaluative meanings, and itself highly motivating. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
QUINN, NAOMI |
spellingShingle |
QUINN, NAOMI Cultural Selves |
author_facet |
QUINN, NAOMI |
author_sort |
QUINN, NAOMI |
title |
Cultural Selves |
title_short |
Cultural Selves |
title_full |
Cultural Selves |
title_fullStr |
Cultural Selves |
title_full_unstemmed |
Cultural Selves |
title_sort |
cultural selves |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2003 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1196/annals.1279.010 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1196%2Fannals.1279.010 https://nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1196/annals.1279.010 |
geographic |
Baffin Island |
geographic_facet |
Baffin Island |
genre |
Baffin Island Baffin inuit |
genre_facet |
Baffin Island Baffin inuit |
op_source |
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences volume 1001, issue 1, page 145-176 ISSN 0077-8923 1749-6632 |
op_rights |
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1279.010 |
container_title |
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences |
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1001 |
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1 |
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145 |
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176 |
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1812175688814297088 |