Father-Child Relations

Due to a greater involvement of American fathers in the direct care of their children in recent years, interest in the impact and nature of the father's role in nurturing children has increased. While studies about fathers in the industrialized, literate West have proliferated, little is known about the role of fathers in the preliterate, non-Western world. This collection examines the diversity of paternal roles found in human cultures among various types of societies that are very peaceful and those that actively engage in warfare as a mode of existence.Father-Child Relations recognizes the importance of understanding both biological and cultural aspects of the father's role. Many of the contributors utilize evolutionary or biosocial models, including those of developmental psychology, to examine the father's role, while others rely upon the symbolic analysis of cultural and social anthropology. One chapter is devoted to male-infant relationships in nonhuman primates, a further largely ignored comparative perspective.The anthropologists who have contributed to this collection are field workers who have lived intimately over significant periods of time with the people about whom they are writing. These research reports from the field have been edited to make them wholly accessible to the non-specialist. The contributors of this volume recognize that biology and ideology are intertwined; both together influence the father's behavior and the effects of his behavior.

List of Contributors, Introduction, Part I. Dad and Cad Reproductive Strategies: The Biosocial Context of Father's Role, 1. Male-Infant Relationships in Nonhuman Primates: Paternal Investment or Mating Effort?, 2. Paternal Effect on Offspring Survivorship among Ache and Hiwi Hunter-Gatherers: Implications for Modeling Pair-Bond Stability, 3. Paternal Care in a Caribbean Village, 4. Variation in Paternal Care among the Yanomamo, 5. Fatherhood by Rank on Ifaluk, 6. If You Have a Child You Have a Life: Demographic and Cultural Perspectives on Fathering in Old Age in IKung Society, 7. Husband-Wife Reciprocity and the Father-Infant Relationship among Aka Pygmies, 8. Gender Differences in the Perception of Ideal Family Size in an Australian Aborginal Community, Part II. The Cultural Context of Father's Role: Perspectives from Cross-Cultural Human Development and Symbolic Anthropology, 9. The Cultural Foundations of Fathers' Roles: Evidence from Kenya and the United States, 10. Fathers in Children's Environments: A Four Culture Study, 11. Male Care among Efe Foragers and Lese Farmers, 12. Gukwelonone: The Game of Hiding Fathers and Seeking Sons among the Ongee of Little Andaman, 13. Fathering in an Egalitarian Society, 14. Fathers and Childcare among the Cagayan Agta, 15. Perceptions of Parenting among the Nso of Cameroon, 16. Father-Child Relations in Urban China, Author Index, Subject Index