There is nothing in the world to match child rearing for the depth and complexity of the challenges it poses both for those directly caught up in its daily intricacies and for the society to which child and caretakers belong. The truly extraordinary chapters of this book, so imaginatively written as “Manuals of Child Rearing” for seven different cultures literally all over the world, are testaments not only to the astonishing variety of ways in which those challenges are met but, as well, to the sheer ingenuity of our species in coping with the task of replacing itself.

To begin with, child rearing, given humans’ cultural adaptation, is not straight-line evolutionary extrapolation of “biological species reproduction.” Cultural adaptation, by any standard, is a big deal as well as a recent one, perhaps only a half million years old. Human immaturity seems shaped (if a bit haphazardly) to its requirements: not only to growing up per se (at best, rather a vapid idea) but to growing up Balinese or Ifaluk or Japanese. And it is not only prolonged helplessness that is special about human infancy, but its utter reliance on sustained and extended interaction with a committed and enculturated caregiver.

The very act of “having a baby” brings the mother/caregiver into the culture in a new way. Bringing a baby into the world is fraught with cultural consequences. Your status changes, and even more to the point, the rights and responsibilities that go with your role in the culture also change.