The Cultural Nature of Human Development

The Cultural Nature of Human Development presents an account of human development that looks at both the differences and similarities among cultures. Beyond demonstrating that 'culture matters', Rogoff focuses on how culture matters in human development - what patterns help make sense of the cultural aspects of human development? Rogoff integrates research and theory from several disciplines, including cross-cultural psychology, sociocultural research, linguistic and psychological anthropology, and history. The volume examines multiple aspects of development, including childrearing, gender differences, interdependence and autonomy, developmental transitions, maternal attachment, parental discipline, and cognition and culture.

Three-year-old Kwara'ae children in Oceania act as caregivers of their younger siblings, but in the UK, it is an offense to leave a child under age 14 ears without adult supervision. In the Efe community in Zaire, infants routinely use machetes with safety and some skill, although U.S. middle-class adults often do not trust young children with knives. What explains these marked differences in the capabilities of these children?
Until recently, traditional understandings of human development held that a child's development is universal and that children have characteristics and skills that develop independently of cultural processes. Barbara Rogoff argues, however, that human development must be understood as a cultural process, not simply a biological or psychological one. Individuals develop as members of a community, and their development can only be fully understood by examining the practices and circumstances of their communities.