This unprecedented collection of articles is an introduction to the study of cultural variations in childhood across the world and to the theoretical frameworks for investigating and interpreting them. This book presents a history of cross-cultural approaches to child-development. Recent articles examine diverse contexts of childhood in ecological, semiotic, and sociolinguistic terms. It includes ethnographic studies of childhood in the Pacific, Africa, Latin America, East Asia, Europe and North America; illuminates the process through which people become the bearers of culturally/historically specific identities; and, serves as an ideal text for anthropology courses focusing on childhood, as well as classes on development psychology.