Darcia Narvaez: "The Indigenous Worldview: Original Practices for Becoming and Being Human

Darcia Narvaez is Professor of Psychology at the University of Notre Dame and writes a blog for Psychology Today called "Moral Landscapes." This is a talk given at the conference, Sustainable Wisdom: Integrating Indigenous Knowhow for Global Flourishing, which took place at the University of Notre Dame in 2016.

[@gustav4351]

You spoke, in a tearing up manner many times there. Tough world indeed.

[@ContemplativeinAction68]

Thank you Darcia. Before watching your teaching, I was sitting at my computer thinking, "I need to focus on my job search, I don't have time to sit for 40 minutes and watch this. I'll just watch the first 5 minutes or so." Five (5) minutes came, and then 10 minutes, and what you were saying was speaking to my soul, and I could not stop watching, so much so I watched and listened to your entire teaching. Listening to the Life- Giving Spirit within by being patient, open-minded, open-hearted, and trusting the True Inner-Voice, has helped my job/career search more than if I would've listened to the first voice of impatience, closed-mindedness, closed-heartedness, distrust, etc. Again, thank you so much!

[@janelmirendah9755]

I am looking at the breastfeeding needs with the alloparenting. I notice that babies need to be b/f 2-3 times/hour. I know initially it is frequent - I breastfed four babies. In the continuum from birth and need for skin-to-skin with mother, what does the engagement of the human alloparents look on this continuum? How are they engaged? Since this is a period of time when mother-baby attachment is so vital I presume prior to three months alloparents have little contact with baby who is at the breast. And mother the mother more than care for the baby. Do you have resources for this? Thank you.

[@darcianarvaez498]

Anthropologist Sarah Hrdy (correct spelling) has a marvelous book called Mothers and Others in which she describes the shared caregiving of our human ancestors and cousins in more traditional societies. Mothers are always with other mothers, never isolated. Other mothers and even grandmothers sometimes breastfeed a child if needed.

[@ThinkerFeeler]

She says babies "don't cry in traditional societies." That's an extraordinary claim. Is it valid?

[@darcianarvaez498]

The anthropologists who live with, observe and report on small-band hunter-gatherers (SBHG) note quick responses to babies' cries for quick calming. (More info on the Evolved Nest here: www3.nd.edu/~dnarvaez/EDST.htm; see also Narvaez, D. (2013). The 99%--Development and socialization within an evolutionary context: Growing up to become “A good and useful human being.” In D. Fry (Ed.), War, Peace and Human Nature: The convergence of Evolutionary and Cultural Views (pp. 643-672). New York: Oxford University Press. (Google it and you will find a copy.) All babies are fussy in the first months as they are rapidly adjusting to the world outside the womb. But adults in SBHG take action to keep the baby calm. In the USA, babies tend to cry more than those in other nations, when comparisons are made, perhaps due to maternal stress during pregnancy which increases infant irritability. There is a cultural bias towards letting babies cry in the USA for various reasons. See this blog post for more info: Dangers of "Crying it Out": www.psychologytoday.com/blog/moral-landscapes/201112/dangers-crying-it-out