Book Review

Canada and the United States

This is a bold book. From Stone Age Indian culture through today's children of divorce, the slim volume nimbly jumps across three centuries, defying vast ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic divides. The unifying focus is on parenting rather than on the material culture of childhood or the institutions that define and support the child. Joseph E. Illick's analysis of parenting begins with the practices surrounding pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding and continues through adolescence, with a particular emphasis on the forms of discipline employed and the ways in which gender differences are shaped. The ultimate test of parenting for Illick is the way in which the autonomy of the adult is encouraged and developed.

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By the autonomy test, American Indian child raising wins hands down. Illick's portrait of American Indian parenting is the most appealing of the book. He presents an almost idyllic portrayal of Indian children growing up in nature (albeit a harsh, unforgiving nature) under the firm but benevolent guidance of loving adults who never treated the child harshly. Beginning with the extended comfort of the tightly bound cradleboard and unrestricted access to their mothers' breasts, children were both protected and encouraged to develop freely. Illick reports the astonishment of seventeenth-century travelers at the absence of corporal punishment. Instead, the critical development of self-restraint and stoicism in the face of pain and hardship occurred by example. For a moment, Illick drops his historical voice and clearly reveals his own ideological stance: "the absence of corporal punishment—by its very non-presence—promoted autonomy. There is no doubt in the contemporary psychological literature that the presence of such punishment erodes autonomy" (p. 37).

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