Inuit morality play : the emotional education of a three-year-old / Jean L. Briggs.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Briggs, Jean L., 1929-2016.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Inuit children--Psychology.

Inuit children.

Inuit children--Attitudes.

Inuit--Social life and customs.

Inuit.

Socialization--Northwest Territories--Baffin Island.

Socialization.

Social skills in children--Northwest Territories--Baffin Island.

Social skills in children.

Baffin Island (Nunavut)--Social life and customs.

Baffin Island (Nunavut).

Nunavut--Baffin Island.

Physical Description:

xix, 275 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New Haven [Conn.] : Yale University Press, [1998]

Summary:

Jean L. Briggs takes us through six months of dramatic interactions in the life of Chubby Maata, a three-year-old girl growing up in a Baffin Island hunting camp. The book examines the issues that engaged the child - belonging, possession, love - and shows the process of her growing. Briggs questions the nature of "sharedness" in culture and assumptions about how culture is transmitted. She suggests that both cultural meanings and strong personal commitment to one's world can be (and perhaps must be) acquired not by straightforwardly learning attitudes, rules, and habits in a dependent mode but by experiencing oneself as an agent engaged in productive conflict in emotionally problematic situations. Briggs finds that dramatic play is an essential force in Inuit social life. It creates and supports values; engenders and manages attachments and conflicts; and teaches and maintains an alert, experimental, constantly testing approach to social relationships.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-275).

ISBN:

0300072376

OCLC:

37903442