Our enculturated perceptions of the innate nature of the infant/child stand in stark contrast to those of many of the indigenous cultures I learned of in my studies. There children are assumed to be innately good, innocent, worthy, and social in their motives; cultures in which fighting, disobedience and punishments are virtually unheard of.

The child's persona is respected as a good thing in all respects. There is no concept of a "bad child," nor, conversely, any distinction made about good children. It is assumed that a child is social, not antisocial, in his motives. What he does is accepted as the act of an innately "right" creature. This assumption of rightness, or sociability, as an inbuilt characteristic of human nature is the essence of the Yequana attitude toward others, of any age. It is also the keystone upon which the child's development is based... The assumption of innate sociability is at direct odds with the fairly universal civilized belief that a child's impulses need to be curbed in order to make him social. —Jean Leidloff, The Continuum Concept

 

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