Robert A. LeVine

Bio: Robert A. LeVine is an academic researcher from Harvard University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Ethnocentrism & Population. The author has an hindex of 35, co-authored 75 publications receiving 6759 citations. Previous affiliations of Robert A. LeVine include Northwestern University & University of Chicago.

Culture theory : essays on mind, self, and emotion

Abstract: Preview: a colloquy of culture theorists Richard A. Shweder Part I. Culture Theory: An Introduction 1. Anthropology's romantic rebellion against the enlightenment, or there's more to thinking than reason and evidence Richard A. Shweder 2. Properties of culture: an ethnographic view Robert A. LeVine 3. Cultural meaning systems Roy G. D'Andrade Part II. Culture, Self, and Emotion: 4. 'From the native's point of view: on the nature of anthropological understanding Clifford Geertz 5. Toward an anthropology of self and feeling Michelle Z. Rosaldo 6. Does the concept of the person vary cross-culturally? Richard A. Shweder and Edmund J. Bourne 7. Understanding people Zeno Vendler 8. Emotion, knowing and culture Robert I. Levy 9. Getting angry: the Jamesian theory of emotion in anthropology Robert C. Solomon Part III. Culture, Language, and Thought: 10. The development of competence in culturally defined domains: a preliminary framework Howard Gardner 11. Language acquisition and socialization: three developmental stories and their implications Elinor Ochs and Bambi B. Schieffelin Part IV. Commentary: 12. Some reflections on cultural determinism and relativism with special reference to emotion and reason Melford E. Spiro Name index Subject index.

Child Care and Culture: Lessons from Africa

Abstract: Foreword List of tables and figures Preface Part I. African Infancy: Frameworks For Understanding: 1. The comparative study of child care 2. Infant care in subsaharan Africa Part II. Parenthood Among The Gusii of Kenya: 3. Gusii culture: A person-centered perspective 4. Gusii fertility, marriage, and family 5. Pregnancy and birth: Part III. Infant Care and Development in a Gusii Community: 6. Infant care: Cultural norms and interpersonal environment 7. Survival and health: The priorities of parents 8. Communication and social learning during infancy 9. Variations in infant interaction: Illustrative cases: Part IV. Interpretations: 10. Early child development in an African context: Comparative lessons Appendices References.

Ethnographic Studies of Childhood: A Historical Overview

Abstract: In this article, I briefly survey the ethnographic research literature on childhood in the 20th century, beginning with the social and intellectual contexts for discussions of childhood at the turn of the 20th century. The observations of Bronislaw Malinowski and Margaret Mead in the 1920s were followed by later ethnographers, also describing childhood, some of whom criticized developmental theories; still others were influenced initially by Freudian and other psychoanalytic theories and later by the suggestions of Edward Sapir for research on the child's acquisition of culture. The Six Cultures Study led by John Whiting at midcentury was followed by diverse trends of the period after 1960—including field studies of infancy, the social and cultural ecology of children's activities, and language socialization. Ethnographic evidence on hunting and gathering and agricultural peoples was interpreted in evolutionary as well as cultural and psychological terms. The relationship between ethnography and developmental psychology remained problematic.

Human parental care: Universal goals, cultural strategies, individual behavior

Abstract: Parents seek to promote the survival and success of their offspring, but their behavior is adapted to the socioeconomic and demographic conditions of agrarian and urban-industrial societies and further differentiated by local cultural traditions.

Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation.

Abstract: People in different cultures have strikingly different construals of the self, of others, and of the interdependence of the 2. These construals can influence, and in many cases determine, the very nature of individual experience, including cognition, emotion, and motivation. Many Asian cultures have distinct conceptions of individuality that insist on the fundamental relatedness of individuals to each other. The emphasis is on attending to others, fitting in, and harmonious interdependence with them. American culture neither assumes nor values such an overt connectedness among individuals. In contrast, individuals seek to maintain their independence from others by attending to the self and by discovering and expressing their unique inner attributes. As proposed herein, these construals are even more powerful than previously imagined. Theories of the self from both psychology and anthropology are integrated to define in detail the difference between a construal of the self as independent and a construal of the self as interdependent. Each of these divergent construals should have a set of specific consequences for cognition, emotion, and motivation; these consequences are proposed and relevant empirical literature is reviewed. Focusing on differences in self-construals enables apparently inconsistent empirical findings to be reconciled, and raises questions about what have been thought to be culture-free aspects of cognition, emotion, and motivation.

Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Methods: Triangulation in Action @

Abstract: December 1979, volume 24 There is a distinct tradition in the literature on social science research methods that advocates the use of multiple methods. This form of research strategy is usually described as one of convergent methodology, multimethod/multitrait (Campbell and Fiske, 1959), convergent validation or, what has been called "triangulation" (Webb et al., 1 966). These various notions share the conception that qualitative and quantitative methods should be viewed as complementary rather than as rival camps. In fact, most textbooks underscore the desirability of mixing methods given the strengths and weaknesses found in single method designs.

A model of (often mixed) stereotype content: Competence and warmth respectively follow from perceived status and competition.

Abstract: Stereotype research emphasizes systematic processes over seemingly arbitrary contents, but content also may prove systematic. On the basis of stereotypes' intergroup functions, the stereotype content model hypothesizes that (a) 2 primary dimensions are competence and warmth, (b) frequent mixed clusters combine high warmth with low competence (paternalistic) or high competence with low warmth (envious), and (c) distinct emotions (pity, envy, admiration, contempt) differentiate the 4 competence-warmth combinations. Stereotypically, (d) status predicts high competence, and competition predicts low warmth. Nine varied samples rated gender, ethnicity, race, class, age, and disability out-groups. Contrary to antipathy models, 2 dimensions mattered, and many stereotypes were mixed, either pitying (low competence, high warmth subordinates) or envying (high competence, low warmth competitors). Stereotypically, status predicted competence, and competition predicted low warmth.

From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development

Abstract: How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development-in the womb and in the first months and years-have reached the popular media. How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues. The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more. Authoritative yet accessible, From Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.