child rearing

The power of continuity : Ethiopia through the eyes of its children

Upphovsperson:	Poluha, Eva
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2004
Ämnesord:	children, Childhood, child rearing, cultural identity, Ethnicity, Family environment, gender roles, School environment, Social norms, Ethiopia, Social anthropology/ethnography, Socialantrolopologi/etnografi

Children play a vital role as a source of information on politics but have been neglected as political actors in research contexts. In this study, children are used as a window to an Ethiopian society where hierarchical relations persist, despite the numerous political and administrative transformations of the past century. With data gathered through participant observation the book examines how young, Addis Abeba school children learn to adapt to and reproduce relations of super- and/or subordination based on gender, age, strength and social position. The children’s experiences are viewed in the historical context of state-citizen relations where hierarchy and obsession with control have been and continue to be dominant. The discussion focuses on the power of continuity in the reproduction of cultural patterns and political behaviour, and on how change towards more egalitarian relations could come about.  

Umleavyo : the dilemma of parenting

Medarbetare:	Ntukula, Mary | Liljeström, Rita
Utgivare:	Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2004
Ämnesord:	Tanzania, parents, gender, generations, children, adolescents, sexuality, initiation, education, marriage, rites and ceremonies, customary law, modernization, child rearing, Sociology, Sociologi

Societies and families are changing all over the world. Less of what the older generations transmit of their experiences can be replicated by the younger generations in their own lives. What we are witnessing is a type of cultural delinking from past generations. Parents despair when their good intentions fail to have an effect and feel overwhelmed by circumstances they cannot control.The Reproductive Health Study Group linked to the University of Dar es Salaam published the first set of studies, Chelewa, Chelewa: The Dilemma of Teenage Girls, in 1994. The focus was on the teenage girl and the various reactions of the adult world to teenage out-of-wedlock pregnancies. The next set of studies, Haraka, Haraka: Look Before you Leap, appeared in 1998 and looked at the erosion of the customs that had regulated marriage, parenthood, and intergenerational obligations.This third and final report, Umleavyo: The Dilemma of Parenting, comprises studies on the generation gap and the ways in which this gap has widened over the past century. In these studies, the past serves as the seemingly stable background on which to project currently fluid and ambiguous parent-child relationships. The main focus of the studies is the different methods of, and goals for, bringing up the next generation. These include physical punishment; achieving compliance through fear and reference to supernatural forces; initiation ceremonies that provide multiple precautions and timely instruction on marriage and procreation; emphasis on relations between people as the most crucial experiences; and encouraging a sense of personal responsibility.The volume is based on the narratives of the grandparents, parents, and youths in the villages of the Pare people in the north and of the initiation leaders in Songea in the south, and on a comparison of the opinions of Nyakyusa elders and youths on gender issues. The central questions raised in the book are: How should one-support youths for whom there is no clear passage to full adulthood? And, how can one forge links between the plight of families and issues of citizenship and public action?