Child rearing and cultural diversity. Contributions of anthropology to pediatric practice

This article proposes to define child rearing as a social and cultural process that, far from depicting universal and invariable characteristics, shows a huge diversity, mostly linked to the cultural features of families and communities in charge of such process. It has been considered that the anthropological perspective may contribute to understanding such multiple forms of bringing up children that are usually seen at the pediatrician's office and that involve different concepts in relation to childhood, individual, body, motherhood, fatherhood, among others. In turn, this article warns about the risks of restricting the approach to child rearing to a naive cultural relativism that reduces the role of culture to essentials and, on the contrary, points out the need to consider how cultural features intertwine with social inequalities when interpreting such diversity.