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Commentary: From the Mother's Point of View
Author(s) -
LeVine Robert A.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
ethos
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.783
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1548-1352
pISSN - 0091-2131
DOI - 10.1111/j.1548-1352.2010.01162.x
Subject(s) - socialization , ethnography , point (geometry) , semiotics , psychology , sociology , developmental psychology , social psychology , epistemology , anthropology , philosophy , geometry , mathematics
Abstract A person‐centered ethnography of mothering begins with the mother's point of view, reconstructed in terms of its utilitarian and semiotic components, and proceeds to the child's point of view, which is more difficult to detect. The child's culture‐specific precocious behavior can provide indications of earlier experience. Other methodological and interpretive problems are briefly discussed in terms of the articles in the issue: discontinuities in socialization, questions of internalization, and the emotional mutuality of mother and child. [mothering, parenting, childhood, socialization, emotions, ethnographic methods]