November 17, 2000
Seeing Children and Hearing Them, Too
Anthropologists now realize that transmitting values is a two-way street
When a newborn wets the person holding him, the Senufo people of southern Burkina Faso say the baby is offering a gift. In Ivory Coast, the Beng people call on diviners to help them discern their infants' wishes, which are left over from the babies' previous incarnations.
Alma Gottlieb says it is time for anthropologists to take such infant communication seriously -- not just for
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