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Although many implicitly believe in the naked, a-social innocence of the newborn, infants occupy an important social role from the moment of birth. Their participation in this role has significant consequences not only on their own development, but also on the continuing development and social value of their caretakers.
In her chapter on ontogeny and socialization in Primate Paradigms, Linda Fedigan (1982) touches on the phenomenon of the "alloparent" among primates and of the significance of this relationship to both the infant and the adults involved. These extra "babysitters" are usually juvenile female primates, but this does not hold true in all cases. Nor are these alloparents always related to the child they express interest in. Fedigan argues that this role has several functions. It 1) allows the alloparent to gain essential first-hand experience in child care, 2) relieves mothers from 'round the clock mothering, and 3) expands the social world of the infant. The significance of the child's social relationships in regard to the alloparent are much greater than this. Children have social value. They are not simply treated as empty vessels that must be cared for and filled. They are also, in a sense, social vehicles through which kinship and fictive kinship are determined, support is bolstered, groups of interest are established, and conflicts are mediated. Through their young, adults may come to establish joint relationships or alliances that endure far beyond childhood. Children are, in a sense, a strategy of co-maintaining relationships within the social group of the mother, in which neither the mother nor the child hold primary responsibility for the upkeep of relations. Some argue as well that such a relationship positions with more certainty an allomother who as yet not been capable of reproducing and is therefore unsure of her status within the group. Fedigan also cites instances in which male primates use infants in potentially agonistic encounters with more dominant males. Subordinate males approach more dominant males with infant in tow and seem to be using them as a means of protection or as a reminder of a particular shared bond. In the macaque, Taub (1980) found that the males who appeared to be participating in an agonists encounter, were actually involves in a "triadic" relationship in which both males held a particular care-taking relationship to the infant. Such behavior has been exhibited in baboons and others species as well.
Among humans, children are often used to mediate the social environment. Not only does the birth of the child often affect the status of its mother, but its ability to interact with others also has such an impact. Children who interact in peer groups, for instance, influence the relationships that their mothers or fathers form with other parents. Many children serve as messengers between households, and in some cases, act as "second voices" for parents who cannot appropriately express certain thoughts from their own position. It is often in this last sense that failing to recognize the importance of a child's role is vital, for ignoring the ways in which children mediate the social environment is precisely what allows their interactions to be neutralized and informal. From the researchers standpoint, however, such relationships cannot be ignored, for they are an important contribution to the learning environment of children. Infants do not suffer through childhood to acquire a position of social obligation in adulthood. They are socially obligated from birth. Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article The Social Role of Infants in Human and Non-Human Primates in Anthropology is owned by Valerie Borey. Permission to republish The Social Role of Infants in Human and Non-Human Primates in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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