Child Rearing Dorothy Lee Summary

Child Rearing: According to the Navaho Indians of Arizona and New Mexico
Anthropologist, Dorothy Lee exposes the fact that we, human beings, are challenged for we are unable to live in harmony with all that surrounds us. Her work, Individual Autonomy and Social Structure explains how social structure, one with rules and regulations, can coexist effectively with individual autonomy. She presents is the idea of child rearing and the effects society, parents and the child itself has on living life without being molded and shaped by expectations. Looking deeper into this idea she explains her point of view by exposing us to the Navaho Indians of Arizona and New Mexico. The Navaho tribe, she emphasizes how each individual relies and depends on
themselves as well as their structured society to grow and accomplish this individual autonomy. The Navaho community’s influences on a child is what pushes Lee to conclude that we, human beings, can truly be independent in our own ways where society does not form us but rather guides us to find our own meaning.

Dorothy Lee emphasizes, according to the Navaho tribe, that the job of a parent when it comes to child- rearing, is simply to allow the child to explore and experience everything about themselves as well as what surrounds them.
To elaborate she talks about how children are left to make their own mistakes and then left to suffer pain or sadness, grief or joy (Lee, pg.13). Thus the child learns to accept his or her own consequences. This shows how children at a young age can be trusted with their own freedom of choice and independently understand right from wrong though experiences. Lee underlines experience to be the guiding factor in the Navaho community; children are not warned about the outcome of their doings thus given the chance to freely get a sense of, and get involved with their learning process. Additionally Lee points out how a child is placed with responsibility as young as the age of five (Lee, pg.10). Hence there is no distinction between an adult and a child (Lee, pg.12). This sense of equality provides the child with a feeling of maturity, self- reliance and the realization of trust that flows between the family system. Nonetheless a child’s job or the responsibility that he or she is provided with, if not done properly could affect the entire family (Lee, pg.11). Hence it elaborates the dependence parents as well as the family system has in their children at such a young
age.
Additionally she states that the Navaho Indians hold no role in shaping what a child in their community child is to do.
Rather they allow children to question their actions, and formulae their own perspectives of their surroundings. The Navaho community believes in living in harmony with the environment, thus any actions of any adult or child should respect that (Lee, pg.11). Nonetheless children are not given any set of laws or rules that state what is permitted and what is not, rather they are guided through observing. They learn the restrictions and procedures of society by watching other people in their surroundings carry them out. Therefore the children freely learn how to live peacefully and together as a part of their society, respecting the environment. Besides observing, children of the Navaho community are guided by society as well. Even so, when a child is in doubt or is questioning something, he or she is always presented with assistance. They would look up to the headman or the chief (Lee, pg. 9). This headman or chief would never insist that the child (or even an adult) does something in a particular way; rather he would provide advice and an explanation. He could offer an experience or an option to which a child (or even an adult) would then decide for themselves whether or not they would like to take the advice. Hence a child learns their roles and the accepted norms of society through simply watching others. And yet if he or she does not agree or is
questioning the ways of society, the child is pointed towards an explanation to which the decision of the outcome still remains to be theirs.
Thus looking at the Navaho Indians we see how a child is allowed the freedom to act independently and is not just provided with a set of laws or rules on how to behave, or how to act in society. Rather, children from a young age are allowed to venture out independently and figure out for themselves what is appropriate and what is not while still being a part of the local community. They are respected and treated as if an adult would be and thus are not forced by expectations to act in a certain way. Additionally they are guided and yet are allowed to determine for themselves what they would like to believe. Dorothy Lee’s example of the Navaho Indians’ child rearing methods concludes her major argument; it demonstrates that we human beings, even as a child, can be truly free and independent. We can be individuals, and still live in a close nit community where everyone is entitled to their own actions.

Works Cited
Lee, Dorothy. Individual Autonomy and Social Structure. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1959. Print.