Teaching: Natural or Cultural?

In this chapter I argue that teaching, as we now understand the term, is historically and cross-culturally very rare. It appears to be unnecessary to transmit culture or to socialize children. Children are, on the other hand, primed by evolution to be avid observers, imitators, players and helpers—roles that reveal the profoundly autonomous and self-directed nature of culture acquisition (Lancy in press a). And yet, teaching is ubiquitous throughout the modern world—at least among the middle to upper class segment of the population. This ubiquity has led numerous scholars to argue for the universality and uniqueness of teaching as a characteristically human behavior. The theme of this chapter is that this proposition is unsustainable. Teaching is largely a result of recent cultural changes and the emergence of modern economies, not evolution

Colonialism, gender and the family in North America: for a gendered analysis of indigenous struggles

This paper explores the case for a feminist, gendered analysis of anti‐colonial Indigenous struggles in two stages: It considers the historical and contemporary relationship between colonialism and gender, moving from pre‐colonial Indigenous life through colonisation and assimilation to explore Indigenous life today. It then discusses the problems and possibilities that the intersection of colonial power and gender presents for Indigenous struggles. The paper focuses on Indigenous communities in North America, engaging in particular with Inuit in Nunavut. It suggests that a gendered analysis is critical to understanding colonial power and is therefore vital to thinking about anti‐colonial Indigenous struggles; that an Indigenous Feminism may be able to move beyond the limits of dominant, Liberal and European feminisms as well as those of Indigenous resistance strategies