Historical anthropology is a revision of the German philosophical anthropology under the influences of the French historical school of Annales and the Anglo-Saxon cultural anthropology. Cultural-historical psychology is a school of thought which emerged in the context of the Soviet revolution and deeply affected the disciplines of psychology and education in the 20th century. This book draws on these two schools to advance current scholarship in child and youth development and education. It also enters in dialogue with other relational approaches and suggests alternatives to mainstream western developmental theories and educational practices.

1. M. Kontopodis: Introduction.- Part I: Culture, History and Child Development.- 2. A. Stetsenko: Darwin and Vygotsky on Development - An exegesis on human nature.- 3. F. Seeger & M. Hildebrand-Nilshon: Two Lines of Development: Reconsidering and Updating Vygotsky's Argument.- 4. Ch. Moro: Material Culture and Semiotic Development in Early Childhood.- 5. Ch. Wulf: Mimesis in Early Childhood - Enculturation, Practical Knowledge and Performativity .- 6. B. Althans: Speculative Fantasies - Infancy in the Educational Discourse of Early Modern Germany.- Part II: Gender, Performativity and Educational Practice.- 7. M. Hedegaard: A Cultural-Historical Approach to Children's Development of Multiple Cultural Identities.- 8. G. Ivinson: School Curriculum as Developmental Resource - Gender and Knowledge.- 9. K. Audehm: Under the Sign of the Coffee Pot: Mealtime Rituals as Performative Practices.- 10. S. Klasen: Touching Each Other - Video-analysis of Mother-Infant Interaction after the Birth.- 11. E. Sørensen: Configuration of Ontologies - an Inquiry into Learning Designs.- 12. M. Kontopodis: Enacting Human Developments - From Representation to Virtuality.- 13. A. Chronaki: "Troubling" Essentialist Identities - Performative Mathematics and the Politics of possibility. Instead of an Epilogue.- 14. S. Chaiklin: The Role of 'Practice' in Cultural-Historical Science.- Biographical Notes.- Index.