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Using longitudinal data from five Irish American families in the United States and nine Chinese families in Taiwan, in conjunction with an emerging body of evidence in the cultural psychology literature, we propose universal, culturally variable, and developmental dimensions of young children's pretend play. Possible universal dimensions include the use of objects, and the predominantly social nature of pretend play. Developmental dimensions include increases in the proportion of social pretend play initiated by the child, the proportion of partner initiations elaborated upon by the child, and caregivers' use of pretend play initiations to serve other, nonplay social functions. Culturally variable dimensions include the centrality of objects, the participation of specific play partners, the extent of child initiations of social pretend play with caregivers, the various functions of social pretend play in interaction, and specific themes. These findings raise the theoretical issue of how universal and variable dimensions of pretend play interact in specific communities to create distinctive development pathways.
Many theories of the ontogeny of selfhood share the assumption that our concepts of who we are as individuals develop in the context of social relationships. Despite a rich tradition of thought that highlights the self as a relational entity, research in child development has historically reflected a highly individualistic notion of the child's emerging understanding of self. More recently, the theoretical concern with the socially embedded nature of self has generated several methodological innovations aimed at capturing development in interpersonal contexts. The field of social cognition reflects this emphasis on relationality and has extended its focus beyond the individual child to encompass the social interactions in which notions of self and other develop (Damon and Hart, 1988; Dunn, 1988;and Stem, 1985). Despite the current interest in the relationship between self and social understanding, most empirical investigations of this process continue to treat these ideas as separate conceptual systems from a developmental standpoint.The notion that language provides a link between individual minds and social contexts has gained considerable prominence in developmental studies within the last decade. Stern (1985) has claimed that language generates an "intersubjective" understanding of self, and he offers "a new way of being related to others (who may be present or absent) by sharing personal world knowledge with them, coming together in the domain of verbal relatedness" (p. 173). Language permits the young child a means to reflect on, represent, and communicate about herself to other people. It offers a new interactional context within which the child can experience herself and participate in her NEW DIRECIIONS FOR CHILD DRmOPhlP3T. no. 69, Fall 1995 0 JOSXy-BSS Publbhen 61 62 YOUNG CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS OF SELF AND OTHER
This chapter examines the structural and political devices of postmodern historiographic metafiction and the use of humorous fiction about childbirth as a counter-historical practice. I argue that while The Birth House operates as a form of historical fiction, author Ami McKay’s primary goal is to draw attention to Euro-Canadian notions of morality and the so-called medically sound infallibility of science through representations of the grotesque. What type of book is The Birth House and how does it fit in to Canadian literary tradition? I propose that The Birth House provides a space in which McKay uses binary oppositions to argue for the promotion of midwifery, holistic birthing, and the reclamation of the feminist body through mothering. Through historical fiction, McKay unpacks historic discourse by suggesting that the inscription of a woman, a midwife no less, into turn of the twentieth century narrative disrupts the national myths of medical and scientific progress.
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