The family : an ethnographical and historical outline with descriptive notes, planned as a text-book for the use of college lecturers and of directors of home-reading clubs / by Elsie Crews Parsons.

  • Parsons, Elsie Worthington Clews, 1874-1941.
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: The family : an ethnographical and historical outline with descriptive notes, planned as a text-book for the use of college lecturers and of directors of home-reading clubs / by Elsie Crews Parsons. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    62/430 (page 28)
    28 The Family Need of observation is unfortunatc that informatioii about habits of of lactation habits lactation is so scant. Facts about the regularity and amount of feeding, the physical habits of nursing mothers, the feelings and beliefs of mothers about the function,^ should be carefully noted, both by ethno¬ graphers and observers of civil societies. These facts are essential to any comprehensive study of mater¬ nity or of public health and education.^ Duration and na- Among: mankind, as amongr the lower animals, the ture of parental care _ _ among mankind in duration and uature of parental care in general more general correspond to the period and degree of imma¬ turity characteristic of the offspring, which, in turn, more or less correspond to the nature of the environ- Eariy economic ment.® Where the forms of food and shelter in use independence of off- Tir-i , <т , i epring are supplied, lor the most part, directly by nature, such as roots, seeds, berries, fruits, shell-fish, etc., and caves, trees, rude huts of bark or wood, children from seven to ten years old, or even younger, in some cases soon after they are weaned, may begin to provide for them¬ selves. Where, on the other hand, the habits of satis- fying physical wants are more or less elaborate, depending upon speed, strength, endurance, cun¬ ning, foresight, self-control, persistence, in hunting, fishing, cultivating the soil, handicraft, cattle raising, or trade, offspring may be economically dependent upon parents up to all ages from ten to twenty. Postponement of With the growth of knowledge and of specialisation, economic independ- . .. /. . >11 >111 enee of offspring the productiou oi Certain social values, as m all the so-called learned professions of to-day, for example, requires ever-increasing degrees of intelligence and ' See p. 96 . ® The recent British Inter-departmental Committee on Physical Deteriora¬ tion has borne witness to this statement. Report, London, 1904, pp. 50, 51. ® By environment we mean the social as well as the natural surroundings.