Child Care in Cross-Cultural Perspectives: Implications for the Future Organization of Child Care in the United States

In every society care of children is primarily a female responsibility, yet there is still tremendous cross-cultural variation in the organization of child care. Three characteristics of child care in small-scale traditional agrarian societies are discussed: role integration, use of auxiliary caregivers, and the effects of certain ecological patterns on childrearing. Data concerning each of these points is presented, along with implications for the future organization of child care in our own society. These implications are based on, first, the assumption of adaptiveness in forms of child care organization that have evolved over periods of time in these relatively stable societies, and, secondly, on the notion that concepts of child care that work in other societies can, in many cases, be adapted to current conditions in the United States.