ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author presents a brief outline of his contact with an Irish Traveller community and shows how particular cultural beliefs shape attitudes to childcare and development. It argues that such beliefs are in the service of denying the opportunity to think about emotional life. Such is the extent of this denial that culture can be seen to act as a social skin, in the manner of secondary skin formation described so closely by Mrs Bick. This skin holds together the individual within the culture of the community. In the dominant culture, sexuality, childbirth, and child–rearing are all things that, to a greater rather than lesser extent, evoke (usually) pleasurable emotions for those involved. Despite their suspicions of the dominant culture and its agencies, by and large Traveller parents appear very keen for the children to acquire the literacy skills they do not have, and they are supportive of primary education.
