Article Review for a Research Article Based on Ethnography

Article Review for a Research Article Based on Ethnography
The article under review is titled “Parenting and Cultures of Risk: A Comparative Analysis of Infidelity, Aggression and Witchcraft” written by Robert J. Quinlan and Marsha B. Quinlan. The two authors argue, “Parenting usually affects child development, which shapes their adaptive cultural models for risk taking and relationships” (Quinlan 2007: 164). Parenting behavior can respond flexibly to the environmental risk to assist in preparing children for the environment they will face in the future as adults. When children grow up in hazardous environments where their future outcomes are unpredictable, unresponsive parenting could be adaptive. Child development that is associated with varying parenting practices may influence cultural patterns that are related to aggression and insecurity, a situation that can be referred to as the “risk-response model”. The socialization practices in later childhood are not good predictors of the outcomes as compared to earlier parenting, and a logical conclusion arrived at, which states that cultural adaptations are rooted in parenting practices that have an effect on child development. Key words include behavioral ecology, cross-cultural research, life history, and cultural transmission and all these are interrelated in that they shape the character of children.
 
Summary of Article
Even though childhood experience shapes adult behavior, there is an inadequate comprehension of the pathways to adulthood. When the life history theory is used, an integration of parenting, child development, and cultural models can take place and in that perspective, a conclusion can be made that parental care prepares children for the expected adult life. Often, development strategies target divergent strategies, which are adaptive depending on circumstances that lie on a continuum from mating and parenting efforts. Mating efforts focus on early production, low-intensity parental care, risk-prone behavior, and fluid pair-bonds, traits that may adapt to environments characterized by unstable and risky behavior, which are rewarded by cultural success. Human beings display flexible responses to local conditions, for instance, when faced with environmental risk, they will adjust their parenting behaviors. Even though parental care should benefit the children, it often gets to a point when they diminish in returns. At such a point, parents might focus their efforts on mating to have more children rather than parental care to ensure higher survival chances. Since there is a low-intensity childcare, it might generate a development trajectory that gears towards a risky life in an uncertain environment. When this occurs, it leads to adults that are psychologically disposed towards a high-risk strategy that can include multiple sex partners and hostile behavior. Therefore, the authors suggest that shared psychological tendencies can support cultural models that uphold taking risks, which involve the acceptance of extramarital sex and hostile beliefs that include witchcraft.
In cross-cultural approach to risk response, the life history reflects two fundamental decisions, which are to reproduce now or later. The two decisions can be associated with a wide suite of behaviors that involve interpersonal relations, risk-taking, and interpersonal relations. When the local success depends more on the high levels of social competence and levels of skill, individuals are more likely to delay their production and invest less in offspring. Tense family settings and small levels of parental care promote growth of orientation that focuses on copulating effort behaviors. In contrast, stable families and high rates of parental care can be associated with the development of orientation that focuses on parental effort. Data from the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample is used to test the hypothesis that extrinsic risk has an effect on community-level parenting tendencies, which are postulated to shape shared ideas that concern social relations, which mainly encompasses conjugal bonds and general risk-taking behavior. Conjugal steadiness is operationalized as “approval of extramarital sex” that captures attitudes about the forte of spousal connections and sex with numerous partners. Insecurity and aggressive social cognizance are operationalized as “importance of witchcraft” that estimates attachment security by gauging into related, diagnostically useful psychological progressions. Risk taking and other “externalizing” behaviors are regarded to be the prevalence of aggression that includes theft, assault, and homicide, which are high-risk behaviors that invite retribution and severe consequences (Quinlan 2007:167).
The researchers employ cross-cultural analysis to examine the prepositions of insecurity and aggression by utilizing the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (SCCS). The SCCS comprises indicators of parental receptiveness that contain the father-infant slumbering proximity, parental reaction to infant crying, breastfeeding duration, and father participation. Insensitive parenting was connected to cultural models that included witchcraft, aggression, and the inordinate approval of extramarital sex. The data used is obtained from the SCCS that contains data collected during a field study by Douglas White and George Murdock that provide data of 186 cultures. Information utilized in the research is from 37 to 55 societies and multiple linear regression, and ordinal logit models are employed to explore the relationship between cross-cultural patterns and parenting behavior.
The results of the research were consistent with evolutionary life history theory and the risk response hypothesis where extramarital sex was less acceptable and witchcraft less important in societies that had responsive parenting. Violent behaviors and stealing were not prevalent in societies that had sensitive parents and the socialization in later infancy did not mitigate the adverse effects of early childhood nurturing. The findings of the research suggest a critical period where parenting affects development and a socioecological approach needed to comprehend the development and maintenance of cultural models that are related to risk-taking. The risk response model that has been utilized in the research article can help account for the associations that exist between warfare, socialization practices, and the unequal distribution of resources (Quinlan 2007:172).
Relevance to Anthropology
The research article makes a contribution towards the anthropological theme of cross-cultural parenting found in a population that is diversifying. The parenting goals and conduct of individuals are swayed by traditional norms and informed by prospects of adult protocols valued by a certain society (Laura Johnson 2013:1). The article relates to the school of thought of functionalism where the problems in society arise due to the society trying to meet its physical and psychological needs (Jha 2009: 19). Parents, when faced with the risk of survival, tend to neglect their parenting responsibilities and focus on siring many children to guarantee their survival. The neglect of proper parenting has an adverse effect since children pick up bad habits as they grow up that include violence, theft, and promiscuity. It is imperative that cultural influences on parenting should be adequately monitored, especially during times of stress as they have a huge impact on the child’s growing autonomy and future generations.
References
Jha, M.
2009   An Introduction To Anthropological Thought, 2E. Uttar Pradesh: Vikas Publishing House Pvt  Ltd.
https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=lGNQ2gotOVkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=An+Introduction+To+Anthropological+Thought,+2E&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=An%20Introduction%20To%20Anthropological%20Thought%2C%202E&f=false
Laura Johnson, J. R.
2013   Cross-cultural Parenting: Reflections on Autonomy and Interdependence. Pediatrics Perspectives, 131(4), 1. Retrieved from http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/131/4/631
Robert J. Quinlan, M. B.
2007   Parenting and Cultures of Risk: A Comparative Analysis of Infidelity, Aggression, and Witchcraft. American Anthropologist, 109(1), 164-179.
 

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