The Daily Beast – Newsweek – Best Practices for Raising Kids? Look to Hunter-Gatherers – From The World Until Yesterday by Jared Diamond
Hold them, share them, let them run free. Why the traditional way of raising kids is better than ours.
Author Jared Diamond lays out some powerful thoughts, based on his observations of current hunter-gatherer child-rearing practices that are worth considering (and some that, admittedly, make me uncomfortable). Beyond the scope of this article, but so relevant to the topic, is fascinating current research on brain functioning, which fully supports many of the Hunter-gatherer parenting practices that Diamond suggests westerner parents consider. For instance, more then ever before, science confirms that empathy partly depends on automatic attunement processes usually learned in infancy through parent-infant synchronic movement. It’s not difficult to see why our current parenting culture falls short in this arena.