Between Will and Thought: Individualism and Social Responsiveness in Amazonian Child Rearing

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article provides an ethnographic account of how moral dispositions toward independence and social responsiveness are forged during infancy and toddlerhood among the Runa, an Indigenous people in the Ecuadorian Amazon. I show how two local concepts, munay (will) and yuyay (thought) shape children's early experiences of the self and the self in relation to others. In particular, I argue that, unlike middle‐class Anglo‐Americans who repute paternal responsiveness to be necessary for a “healthy” child development, Runa adults strategically chose not to respond to children's will in order to make them “thoughtful.” Such a state of thoughtfulness, I argue, emerges from socialization practices that stress a child's unique will while at the same time forcefully encouraging the development of social responsiveness. [child‐rearing, individuality, responsibility, attachment, indigenous Amazonia]