ABSTRACT
Despite the steady accumulation of systematic studies of infant and child development in non-Western populations (Draper, 1976; Konner, 1977; Leiderman, Tulkin, & Rosenfeld, 1977; Monroe & Monroe, 1971; Whiting & Whiting, 1975) there are few detailed ethnographic data on the father-infant relationship in these populations. Given the paucity of systematic research in non-Western societies on father-infant interactions and on the father’s roles in all stages of the child’s development, it is ironic that this variable (i.e., the degree of father vs. mother involvement with children) should be so consistently invoked as an explanatory factor in the literature. It is hypothesized to be related, for example, to universal sexual asymmetry (Rosaldo & Lamphere. 1974); variations in sexual dimorphism (Wilson, 1975); the origins of the human family (Lancaster, 1975); contemporary patterns of gender-activity differentiation; (Brown, 1970; Burton, Brudner, & White 1977); the association of males with culture and females with nature (Ortner, 1974); smooth functioning of the family (Zelditch. 1955); and proper moral development (Hoffman, 1981).
