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The evolution of beasts and babies: Recapitulation, instinct, and the early discourse on child development
Author(s) -
Noon David Hoogland
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.216
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1520-6696
pISSN - 0022-5061
DOI - 10.1002/jhbs.20116
Subject(s) - instinct , psychoanalysis , developmental psychology , psychology , sociology , biology , evolutionary biology
The field of “child study” emerged at the end of the nineteenth century with the purpose of disclosing children's “nature” for the benefit of parents, educators, psychologists, and other interested groups. Borrowed from the biological sciences, narratives of biological recapitulation were common in the discourses about child development during this period. Such theories often measured children against “savages,” but they also suggested that the study of childhood offered clues into the evolutionary relationships between humans and animals. By emphasizing the relevance of children's “instincts,” observers of child development explained child behavior as the tissue that linked humans and animals. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.