From the archive: Varieties of childhood - Many Minds
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- From the archive: Varieties of childhood
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- <p class="p1">Hi friends! We're taking a bit of a summer pause. We'll be back soon—in the meanwhile, enjoy this listener favorite from our archives!</p> <p class="p1">-----</p> <p class="p1"><em>[originally aired July 10, 2025]</em></p> <p class="p1">Childhood is a special time, a strange time. Children are adored and catered to—they're given their own menus and bedrooms. They're considered delicate and precious, and so we cushion them from every imaginable risk. Kids are encouraged to play, of course—but very often it's under the watchful eye of anxious adults. This, anyway, is how childhood looks in much of the United States today. But is this the way childhood looks everywhere? Is this the way human childhoods have always been?</p> <p class="p1">My guests today are <a href= "https://www.dorsaamir.com/"><span class="s1">Dr. Dorsa Amir</span></a> and <a href= "https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/sheina-lew-levy/"><span class= "s1">Dr. Sheina Lew-Levy</span></a>. Dorsa is an Assistant Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience at Duke University, where she runs the <a href= "http://www.mindandculturelab.com/"><span class="s1">Mind and Culture Lab</span></a>. Sheina is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Durham University in the UK, where she co-directs the <a href= "https://www.foragerchildstudies.com/"><span class="s1">Forager Child Studies</span></a> research group. Both Sheina and Dorsa have spent much of their careers thinking about how childhoods differ across cultures—and why.</p> <p class="p1">In this conversation, I talk with Dorsa and Sheina about their fieldwork with indigenous groups in Ecuador and the Congo, respectively. We discuss the different ways that childhood differs in these places—for instance, in terms of parents' attitudes toward risk, in terms of the social structures and activities in which kids are embedded, and in terms of the freedom that children are granted. We discuss developmental psychology's "WEIRD problem." We talk about the quasi-autonomous cultures that children create among themselves—sometimes called "peer cultures"—and discuss how these kid-driven cultures end up shaping and benefit the larger community. Along the way, we touch on adult supremacy, adverse childhood experiences, walking the forest and climbing papaya trees, parenting norms, ding dong ditch and "nananabooboo", the pioneering work of the folklorists Iona and Peter Opie, teaching, toys, and the enduring question of what childhood is for.</p> <p class="p2"> </p> <p class="p1">Alright friends, lots to think about here. On to my conversation with Sheina Lew-Levy and Dorsa Amir. Enjoy!</p> <p class="p3"> </p> <p class="p4">A transcript of this episode is available <a href= "https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bQ-gP3FGFawoepUgWQiJMjqd8aQ-X0WG/view?usp=sharing">here</a>.</p> <p class="p2"> </p> <p class="p1"><span class="s2"><em>Notes and links</em></span></p> <p class="p1">9:30 – For an overview of work on how culture shapes motor development, see <a href= "https://www.sciencenews.org/article/culture-helps-shape-when-babies-learn-walk"><span class="s3">here</span></a>.</p> <p class="p1">11:00 – The <a href= "https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/etho.12441"><span class="s3">paper</span></a> by Dr. Lew-Levy's and a colleague about "walking the forest."</p> <p class="p5"><span class="s4">16:00 – Dr. Amir's TedX talk, '<a href= "https://www.ted.com/talks/dorsa_amir_how_the_industrial_revolution_changed_childhood"><span class="s3">How the Industrial Revolution Changed Childhood</span></a>.'</span></p> <p class="p1">17:30 – For some of Dr. Amir's work on risk across cultures, see <a href= "https://www.pinniped.net/amir_2019_jep.pdf"><span class= "s3">here</span></a>.</p> <p class="p1">35:00 – For a recent paper by Dr. Lew-Levy and colleagues about the evolution of childhood, see <a href= "https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciadv.abn9889"><span class="s3">here</span></a>.</p> <p class="p1">39:00 – The <a href= "https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.322.5904.
- Publication Date
- 2026-07-31T21:25:00+00:00
- Status
- completed
- Website
- https://manyminds.libsyn.com/from-the-archive-varieties-of-childhood
- Length
- 88:47
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- /podcasts/Many Minds/1785533100-5359.mp3
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- 121.93 MB
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- 187-CBR
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- 1
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