Tropical childhood: cultural transmission and learning in a rural Puerto Rican village

Landy, David

Book

Tropical childhood: cultural transmission and learning in a rural Puerto Rican village

University of North Carolina Press • Chapel Hill, N.C. • Published In 1959 • Pages: xii, 291

By: Landy, David.

Abstract
This is a study of socialization among lower class families in a rural Puerto Rican village (one of the many villages in the area having a cane plantation-dependent economy). In discussing the social-cultural correlates of socialization, the author also draws systematic comparisons on child rearing and behavior from families in an urban lower and middle class New England community as an 'experimental' control for the findings on Puerto Rico. The author synthesizes an abstract personality complex that is characteristic of the village child, and explains the processes determining this personality type. Admitting that child rearing and child behavior process is very complex, Landy does not specify precise correlations among all the probable causal variables, but discusses a personality pattern that is at least reasonably valid and reliable when applied to other rural Puerto Rican villages where analagous sociocultural and family factors are operating. While quantitative measures on the frequency distribution of the child rearing variables are not found, the main structure of pattern is still in sharp focus. The four appendices at the end of the volume contain useful information on the methodology of this field study. The reader might consult Stycos (source no. 3, this file) for background information on family behavior and relationships as context for this analysis of family child rearing patterns. Note: the name 'Valle Caña' is a pseudonym.

Socialization

Techniques of socialization

Independence training

Child care

Infant care

Infancy and childhood

Comparative evidence

Personality development

Adjustment processes

Puerto Ricans (Island)

HRAF PubDate

2012