Child Rearing and Personal Autonomy

¶ … SOCIAL SCIENCE. The topic file I upload, I upload 2 lecture outlines. *The kit reading "Individual Autonomy Social Structure" Freedom Culture. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall,1959 PP.5-14 LEE, DOROTHY.

The key social problem that Dorothy Lee is addressing is the relationship between personal autonomy and the structure and characteristics of the society of which the individual is a part. In particular, she looks at how "personal autonomy is supported by the cultural framework." As Lee points out at page 9 of her work, the relationship between personal autonomy and structure or the cultural framework, perhaps not obvious at first, is given by the way the latter determines the first.

Indeed, as her eloquent example of the Burmese novices points out, personal autonomy is often determined by the cultural framework. In other words, the individual determines his degree of personal autonomy based on the existing structure of the society he is part of. At the same time, the cultural framework sets tacit rules that determine his area of independent action.

In the same manner, successful societies and cultures appear to be able to properly and efficiently regulate individual action. On one hand, individual action is beneficial to a society, leading to progress and to the further consolidation of societal action. At the same time, however, chaos in societies are often the result of improperly understand autonomy and personal independence. Lee shows that this type of chaos and lawlessness is usually the result of a "structural vacuum."

In the case of the structural vacuum, it is usually an individual or group of individual that bypasses the existing cultural framework in order to expand the level of personal autonomy. Lee points out that this is usually the type of situation that eventually produces a dysfunctional society that Lee assimilates to one where lawlessness and chaos is present.

One of the most interesting examples that Lee discusses is that of child rearing. Lee looks at child rearing in the Navajo society and determines that personal autonomy is something that the Navajos groom and encourage from an early age. This is done through the education that the mother gives the children and the freedom she allows them in growing up.

This education includes not removing dangerous objects from their area, including fire or knives. The personal autonomy is shaped here through trial and error: if the child is a little hurt, he will learn from his mistake and will be able to avoid it in the future. Lee, citing another study, concludes that this makes the children more independent and ready to successfully perform tasks at an early age.

This approach to child rearing also comes to the perception that Navajos apply in their society that there is little differentiation between a child and an adult, both in terms of personal autonomy and in what a child can or cannot do. The example with the babbling child is eloquent in this sense: the mother explains that the child can speak, but that she cannot understand what he is saying.

Finally, another important aspect about Navajo child rearing, in close relationship with the topic of personal autonomy, is that the relationship between parent and child is not necessarily a relationship of direct subordination. As Lee points out, the Navajo child is not taught to obey the parent, but rather to take the advice of the parent. In this sense, the personal autonomy will not be determined by the parent's say, but rather by other factors that are essential for the Navajo society, including things such as the harmony between individual and the Universe.

There are several interesting conclusions to Lee's work. Perhaps the most important one is that a cultural framework does not necessarily restrict personal autonomy. In that sense, personal autonomy and law and order, as well as regulatory limits, can coexist. The idea here is that the existence of limits within a societal framework will not necessarily limit the creativity and progress incentive that result from personal autonomy. Limits and personal autonomy can successfully coexist.

Looking beyond the final pages of her work and going through her essay once more, some of the conclusions are introduced in the first pages. For example, before her analysis of the Navajo child rearing practices, she mentions that many societies, including Indian societies, do not look at their own authority towards a child. As Lee puts it, this type of autonomy or freedom is not theirs to give.