ABSTRACT
The daily interaction between an infant and his caregivers has been hypothesized as the process through which the infant develops a sense of himself as a separate person of family and of culture (Kohut, 1971; Whiting & Whiting, 1975). Caudill and Weinstein (1969) demonstrated how cultural values infused and shaped the interactions of Japanese and American mothers and their infants. Japanese mothers saw their infants as independent biological beings that had to be incorporated into the culture and made interdependent. American mothers saw their infants as dependent beings who had to be helped to become independent. Specific infant-mother interactions during the course of daily caretaking reflected these cultural expectations. For example, Japanese mothers slept with their infants, fed them and performed caretaking activities on a sleeping infant while American infants most often slept alone. Sleep, as a sign of independence, was seldom interrupted. In both cultures the infants were the unknowing focus of the universal process of gaining a culture-specific sense of self.
