Evolving Relations between Mothers and Children in Rural Africa
In: International social science journal: ISSJ, Band 31, Heft 3, S. 486-491
ISSN: 0020-8701
Because researchers tend to orient themselves around the dualisms traditional/modern & rural/urban, they fail to understand changes in child rearing in rural areas. Studied are such changes in rural Africa, focusing on the period of early childhood, during which the child depends upon its mother as the greatest source of socialization. The monetarization of the economy-the development of commercial cultures-has forced women to develop new types of relationships with their children. It is observed in the villages of the Ivory Coast that, while the solidarity of the family & the couple is weakened, that of the mother & her children is strengthened. In the traditional society, the task of educating the child was shared by the community of parents, while in the commercial society, the mother has individualized the role to her unique function. The child becomes the support for all the projects she has lost in the economic structure of the commercial society. AA Tr & Modified by K. Shabetai.