Human development concepts and applications

Exterogestation

The anthropologist, Ashley Montagu, developed quite a diverse and versatile number of theories ranging from views on the concept of race, social factors that contribute to crime, the measurement of internal anatomical markers found of the heads of humans, cooperative behavior as it relates to evolution, and understanding biological and cultural dynamics of sex roles and aggression. Montagu stressed gene-environment interactionism which is the notion that heredity is not merely driven by biological factors in humans but represents a dynamic interactive process between one's experiential history and one's genetic potential (Montagu, 1961). One of Montagu's most interesting ideas is that of the need for contact, especially human infants. Montagu designated the typical nine-month pregnancy as uterogestation: the period when the fetus develops within its mother's uterus so that it will be capable of surviving outside its mother's womb (Montagu, 1986). However, Montagu believed that the human infant emerged only "half-done" (Montagu, 1986, p 55). The newborn is immature at birth which is typically about 266-267 days following conception. Thus, according to Montagu, the newborn baby still required to go through a crucial a period of development outside the womb.

Montagu believed that the newborn would undergo an extended period of gradual maturation outside the womb that was crucial to its development. This period would involve the newborn learning about the environment, but also the newborn's body would undergo a complete physiological maturation of its organ systems. Montagu termed this period of maturation exterogestation (Montagu, 1986). During exterogestation the organ of importance was the skin and touch was crucial to the maturation of the newborn. "It is through body contact with the mother that the child makes its first contact with the world, through which he is infolded in a new dimension of experience, the experience of the world of the other. It is this bodily contact with the other that provides the essential source of comfort, security, warmth, and increasing aptitude for new experiences" (your first source). Thus, touch is the primary stimulus for the newborn's full maturation and development. Montagu, who had taught anatomy and physiology to medical students for years, realized the importance of the organ of the skin in the development and maturation of the newborn. "At birth the skin is called upon to make many new adaptive responses to an environment even more complex to which it was exposed to in the womb. Transmitted through the atmospheric environment, in addition to air movements, are gases, particles, parasites, viruses, bacteria, changes in pressure, temperature, humidity, light, radiation, and much else" (Motagu, 1986 p 4). Montagu recognized the importance of the largest organ in the body, the skin, and its crucial function in all aspects of development. The period of exterogestation allows the newborn child to adjust to the environment and mature as to be assured of its postnatal existence. For Montagu exterogestation allowed for the recognition of the tremendous immaturity of a human newborn and to full understand its needs. Exterogestation was believed to last from the postnatal period until the infant crawls or moves on its own, about nine to ten months of age.