Many Western psychologists, psycholinguists, self proclaimed “experts”, and medical doctors argue that parent-directed play is a vital component to the successful social, psychological, and physical development of children. Utilizing the neo-capitalist movement, now commonly referred to as “globalization”, these professionals push parent-directed play as a universal, thereby elevating Western parenting models “to the level of an exportable social good” (Lancy 2007). An often trivial attitude towards play by cultural researchers is partially responsible for the caveat of misinformation in which the parent-centric universal assumption of parent-directed play was spread. However, previous and ongoing research has begun to illustrate that the amount of parent-directed play varies culturally and is not essential to a child’s social, psychological, and physical development. Using this research, I examined the implications and correlations of flexible parental involvement in a child’s “development”. During two months of participant observation research among the Manjako of Caio, Guinea-Bissau, I identified children’s playmates and tracked the duration and frequency of play interactions. My research explains that children spend most of their day engaged in play with other children rather than with parents, making parent-directed play largely unnecessary for the successful socialization of Manjako children. Such irregularities provide a basis for refuting the argument of universal parent-directed play. Additionally, this research adds to the body of literature, which argues that a culture’s play model is partially responsible for re/creating their culture. In total, this research confirms existing research citing play as culturally variable, extends play as fundamental to culture, and argues against the spread of a universal Western-centric parent-child play model.
About the presenterLexi Nicole Amos
I am pursuing a Master’s of Science in Applied Anthropology from Missouri State University. As of current, my work is focused on the construction of a special needs students through legislative processes, and how those processes are implemented by administrators and realized through the work-lives of teachers. My past work on the globalization of childhood and play are directly connected to my domestically focused thesis.