ABSTRACT
This chapter is entitled 'Cultural Traces' rather than 'Cultural Differences', as we are cautious in suggesting that the study has a sufficiently solid base methodologically to develop such a comparison. Although in all four countries the same methodology was used, the sampling procedures differed greatly, as did the contexts in which the research encounters with the children took place. Further, it is not possible to claim that themes that emerged in the empirical data are 'typical' of the particular cultures studied nor are they 'generalizable', due to the small nature of the sample. Rather, our purpose was to identify those different cultural traces that emerged in the four countries and to describe, analyze, and understand them. This is in line with the arguments put forth in Livingstone's (2003) discussion of the challenges of cross-national comparisons and particularly Chislom's (1995) argument that 'societies and cultures are fundamentally non-comparable and certainly cannot be evaluated against each other'.
