Since the 1950s, the study of early attachment and separation has been dominated by a school of psychology that is Euro-American in its theoretical assumptions. Based on ethnographic studies in a range of locales, this book goes beyond prior efforts to critique attachment theory, providing a cross-cultural basis for understanding human development.

Challenges the Euro-American centrist psychological theory of attachment with a new take using local, ethnographic approaches

PART I: A FRAMEWORK Introduction: Situating and Summarizing Our Critiques; Naomi Quinn and Jeannette Mageo 1. The Puzzle of Attachment: Unscrambling Maturational and Cultural Contributions to the Development of Early Emotional Bonds; Suzanne Gaskins PART II: CAREGIVING 2. Cooperative Care among the Hadza: Situating Multiple Attachment in Evolutionary Context; Alyssa N. Crittenden and Frank W. Marlowe 3. Cooperative Breeding and Attachment in Early Childhood: A Case Study Among the Aka Foragers; Courtney L. Meehan and Sean Hawks 4. 'It Takes a Village to Raise A Child': Attachment Theory and Multiple Childcare in Alor, Indonesia, and in North India; Susan Seymour PART III: AUTONOMY AND DEPENDENCE 5. Childcare, Dependency, and Autonomy in a Sri Lankan Village: Enculturation of and through Attachment Relationships; Bambi L. Chapin 6. Attachment and Culture in Murik Society; Kathleen Barlow PART IV: CHILDHOOD-ADULT CONTINUITIES 7. Towards a Cultural Psychodynamics of Attachment; Jeannette Mageo 8. Adult Attachment Cross-Culturally: A Reanalysis of the Ifaluk Emotion Fago; Naomi Quinn Afterword; Gilda A. Morelli and Paula Ivey Henry