Made By The World

On Raising Children Otherwise

‘Raising a child is never neutral. It is always a moral project, shaped by assumptions about the kinds of people we hope children will become, the kinds of social worlds we wish to sustain, and the futures we are willing to imagine’

When anthropologist Francesca Mezzenzana returned to the Ecuadorian Amazon with her children, she saw her fieldwork in a whole new light. Where she had previously observed unsupervised young children making fires, caring for babies, assisting their elders, foraging and hunting, she was now confronted with how strange her own child-centred approach appeared by comparison.

A Runa relative teasingly interrupts her breastfeeding infant and the lesson is simple: other people have needs and wills too. Another brings reminders of mortality into a game of peekaboo. The point is not cruelty, but perspective. Runa children grow up understanding that life is fragile, love coexists with death, and nobody is the centre of the universe. With each startling realization, Made by the World brings memorable insights about the deeply cultural aspects of parenting and asks whether our current model of childhood is producing the societies we need.

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