Playing on the Motherground: Cultural Routines for Children's Development

Playing on the Motherground: Cultural Routines for Children's Development. By David F. Lancy. New York and London: The Guilford Press, 1996. 240pp. 24.50 [pounds sterling]. ISBN 157230142 2

This book presents the findings of an anthropological study of the Kpelle people of Liberia. In 1967 Lancy, originally an educational psychologist, became involved in a study of the Kpelle people, because of the failure of Kpelle children in the American-style elementary schools which had been introduced into Liberia. Though it is not stated explicitly in the book, it appears that as he came to understand Kpelle society and appreciate the strengths of their traditional way of life, he saw the destructiveness of introducing a foreign culture founded on different beliefs and value-systems. In the course of his explanations of the changes in philosophy since the 1960s, Lancy provides a useful overview of the study of child development, both from a psychological and an ethnological point of view.

The Kpelle culture stresses the importance of work, which is defined largely in terms of growing rice. The whole of society revolves round the making of rice farms, which are cut out of the bush every year in a slash-and-burn exercise. Even a child's age is calculated by how many rice farms have been made since the child's birth. Lancy stresses that this is a perfectly viable way of living, providing that the land is left fallow for ten to twelve years between the farming. Unfortunately, because of the increasing numbers of people, the length of time allowed for the land to recover is becoming shorter and shorter, leading to poorer crops and erosion of the soil.

Rice farming is dependent on the social group, who must work together in harmony, so there is little room for the individualism which is so valued in Western society. Lancy depicts very vividly a society where the culture is transmitted by oral means, where children are allowed to assume responsibility at a time when they feel ready for it, where everyday activities in the town and the surrounding bush are open for children to observe. Children learn by copying, not by verbal instruction, which is, of course, how children's oral tradition is passed on in Western society. Parents influence children by example and by setting limits on their behaviour, but not through direct teaching. There is secret knowledge, however, imparted through bush school, which initiates adolescents into secret societies which pass on information to the participants, though because of the hidden nature of this ritual, it was obviously not available to Lancy.

Children are expected to work, with tasks being graded to suit a child's age and ability. Lancy contrasts the apprenticeship mode of learning, as practised by the Kpelle, and that of formal schooling. He points out that the former is conservative and militates against change; it is dysfunctional for producing innovation and improvement in technique and design. In contrast, learning by trial and error or verbal instruction leads to more innovation; the school system therefore leads children to seek change and reject the culture of their forebears.

The games played by children are described in detail, providing interesting comparisons with their Western counterparts and Lancy charts the appearance of Western play objects such as the wheel and the ball and the effects these have had on traditional play. He analyses the learning involved in these games in Piagetian terms and links the knowledge of games to the age of the child. Kpelle children, however, are fully integrated into the family working unit by the age of, for girls, seven, and rather older for boys, so play must be fitted in alongside this. Lancy also discusses the part played in Kpelle society by dances, songs, stories and proverbs. They assume great importance in this oral culture, where verbal agility and storytelling are valued as a training for "talking matter," the settling of disputes in court.

Lancy ends on a pessimistic note. He concludes that the routines which function well to transmit the indigenous culture do not prepare children for success in school, that the traditional way of life of the Kpelle is under threat and that Western style education has failed them. He suggests abandoning universal primary education and highlights the terrible future which awaits the Kpelle and other indigenous peoples. Public schooling has not led to a transformation in the economy and a modernised agriculture and industry but to the alienation of many of the young people. When this is coupled with unchecked population growth, which is putting unsustainable pressure on the land, the future does not look rosy.

I have some criticisms. The book sometimes fails to present information necessary to an international audience--such as:

--Why are the Americans involved in setting up primary education in Liberia? (Presumably because of the settlement of freed slaves in the nineteenth century, but this is not stated.)