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The Anthropology of Childhood [0] has circulated in the blogosphere. These notes on LessWrong were interesting [1].

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Anthropology-Childhood-Cherubs-Chatte...

[1] https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/vwM7hnT9ysE3suwfk/notes-on-t...




Anthropologist Jean Briggs [0] made baffling observations while studying Inuit [1] collective parenting [2] in the 60s https://text.npr.org/685533353

Briggs quickly realized something remarkable was going on in these families: The adults had an extraordinary ability to control their anger.

...

She was walking on a stony beach in the Arctic when she saw a young mother playing with her toddler — a little boy about 2 years old. The mom picked up a pebble and said, "'Hit me! Go on. Hit me harder,'" Briggs remembered.

The boy threw the rock at his mother, and she exclaimed, "Ooooww. That hurts!"

Briggs was completely befuddled. The mom seemed to be teaching the child the opposite of what parents want. And her actions seemed to contradict everything Briggs knew about Inuit culture.

"I thought, 'What is going on here?' " Briggs said in the radio interview.

Turns out, the mom was executing a powerful parenting tool to teach her child how to control his anger — and one of the most intriguing parenting strategies I've come across.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Briggs

[1] Never in Anger: Portrait of an Eskimo Family http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674608283

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit#Gender_roles,_marriage,_...




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