Baby Cradles of the Ozark Bluff Dwellers

Abstract

Mason begins his classical paper on the Cradles of the American Aborigines by stating that many questions in anthropology, depend for their answers on a correct knowledge of the manner in which the child passes the first year of its life. He points out that the cradle might modify the shape of the child's head and, indeed, of its whole frame. Apparently, then, the study of cradles should contribute equally as much to our knowledge of culture relations as it would to that of physical anthropology, especially since tradition is supposed to linger long in customs affecting the child. Again, the study should increase our understanding of the ecology of the cradle maker. In this connection, I fear, we often fail to consider the fact that the art of the particular people being studied reflects their attempts to make a living within their own environment. The cradle-board, as Mason also shows, is the child of geography and meteorology.