ABSTRACT
As Hewlett (1987:295, 1991:1) and others have recently pointed out, most anthropological accounts of child development and childrearing contain little information about the role that fathers play in the lives of their children. Research perspectives such as that of Bowlby on motherinfant bonding (1969) that highlight the role of the mother, the high degree of female involvement in childrearing in most societies, and the assumption largely derived from western society that childcare is women's work have influenced anthropologists to ignore fatherhood as a topic worthy of study. Moreover, anthropologists have tended to see males and females as living in separate spheres. Rosaldo goes so far as to push men right out of the family setting. Contending that all societies make a distinction between the domestic and the public, she defines the domestic as "those minimal institutions and modes of activity that are organized immediately around one or more mothers and their children" (Rosaldo 1974:23) and defines public as "activities, institutions, and forms of association that link, rank, or subsume particular mother-child groups" (ibid). She finds that women operate within the domestic and men within the public sphere, yet it is her very definitions rather than empirical data that make this so. In focusing on fathering, anthropology is looking beyond such formulations and assumptions about male and female roles. No doubt the discipline's nascent interest in fathering derives in part from our own society's reevaluation of parenting; regard less of the impetus for these studies, however, inquiry into fathering can only add to our knowledge of human society.
