Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Intimate Fathers: The Nature and Context of Aka Pygmy Paternal Infant Care

Intimate Fathers: The Nature and Context of Aka Pygmy Paternal Infant Care

Hewlett, Barry S.

Paperback

AnthropologyBlack American StudiesWomen's Studies

ISBN10: 0472082035
ISBN13: 9780472082032
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Published: Jan 27 1993
Pages: 216
Weight: 0.80
Height: 0.62 Width: 5.98 Depth: 8.97
Language: English
This book is a groundbreaking ethnography that challenges Western assumptions about gender roles, parenting, and the biological necessity of maternal exclusivity. Based on extensive fieldwork among the Aka hunter-gatherers of the Central African rainforest, Hewlett documents what remains the highest level of direct paternal proximity ever recorded in a human society, with Aka fathers staying within arm's reach of their infants for nearly 47% of the day. Rather than filling the traditional Western role of a distant rough-and-tumble playmate, Aka fathers operate in a highly egalitarian system where they actively cuddle, soothe, and gently care for their babies while mothers hunt. By examining the cultural, ecological, and social frameworks that encourage this deep paternal intimacy, Hewlett provides a vital cross-cultural perspective on human evolution and attachment theory, proving that intensive fatherly care is a natural and highly successful strategy for raising secure children.

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Black American Studies

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