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Cross-cultural human development
Many exciting issues are raised for future research encourage any author working in areas where racism consider the questions Sherwood raises.
and I would is an issue to
Paul Pedersen Syracuse University Syracuse, New York
CROSS-CULTURAL Robert
Monterey,
L. Monroe
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT and fir& H. Munroe
Caiif.: Brooks/Cole
Publishing
Co., 1975, 181 pp.
The preface states that this book “attempts to cast human development in broad perspective.” This, then, is another ambitious effort to treat a complex subject from an extended viewpoint in a 200 page paperback. The authors have been assigned (by the Life-Span Human Development Series) the grandiose task of reviewing literature, synthesizing results, and suggesting possible new areas of study in the field of human development. Robert and Ruth Munroe use cross-cultural research data as the broad perspective in order to contrast modern and traditional societies on both developmental stages (infancy to adulthood) and developmental topics (physical growth, affect, language, perception, cognition, dependence, aggression, sex roles, and social motives). In realizing their first objective, the authors are successful. They provide a thorough overview of cross-cultural research on human development stages and topics. (Over 450 studies are reported and evaluated.) As a result, the book represents a valuable supplementary text for courses in intercultural communication. It can serve, furthermore, as a reference in related fields of study such as developmental psychology and cultura1 anthropology. Students, however, are sure to comment upon the wordy. convoluted sentences which inevitably result from an attempt to review numerous studies in a limited space. Another inherent problem involves the difficulty of pulling all of this data together in order to make sense of it and thus reach some conclusions. The authors endeavor to provide such a synthesis by first describing in depth three traditional societies, then reconsidering these societies in terms of the major points that have been made in each chapter. They hope “thereby to induce a thread of continuity among the disparate sections.” This effort at concretizing the abstract research literature does not work. Rather it adds to the confusion since the
Book
Reviews
215
societies sometimes fail and sometimes succeed in confirming the previously described research findings, thus requiring additional commentary on why such is the case. Furthermore, since the book length prohibits a complete and detailed analysis of these societies, they do not become concrete reference points; rather, the inhabitants are for the reader one more subject of research among the many others being reported. The rationale for studying human development from a cross-cultural perspective presented in the Introduction provides the organizing format for the book, and yet these assumptions are only mentioned again in the short final chapter on Conclusions. Had these thought-provoking propositions been reiterated as a summary for each chapter they would have systematized the material and made a forceful argument for utilizing a cross-cultural approach. The book length prohibits a thorough discussion of possible new areas of study; nevertheless, the authors do offer some promising suggestions for future research, i.e., the need for longitudinal research on cognitive development in traditional cultures. Two final observations on content recommend the book. The authors do not shrink from dealing with the race-genetics issue; rather, they provide an adequate refutation of the Jensen hypothesis. Furthermore, they openly question acceptance of current popular theories as developmental universals as they state, “the higher levels of, say, Erickson’s Eight Stages or of Piaget’s intellectual hierarchy sound suspiciously like modern man and no other” (p. 152). Kay Beck George State University Atlanta, Georgia
NONVERBAL BEHAVIOR: APPLICATION AND CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS
Aaron New York: Academic
WoIfgang Press, 1979, 225 pp,
While there are many texts on nonverbal communication presently available, few books adequately probe the cultural dimension of nonverbal behavior. In fact, texts that examine cultural variations in nonverbal behavior frequently tackle the issue in a single chapter which generally consists of a litany of outdated studies and a series of simplistic cultural generalizations. A refreshing departure from the current texts on
and I would is an issue to
Paul Pedersen Syracuse University Syracuse, New York
CROSS-CULTURAL Robert
Monterey,
L. Monroe
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT and fir& H. Munroe
Caiif.: Brooks/Cole
Publishing
Co., 1975, 181 pp.
The preface states that this book “attempts to cast human development in broad perspective.” This, then, is another ambitious effort to treat a complex subject from an extended viewpoint in a 200 page paperback. The authors have been assigned (by the Life-Span Human Development Series) the grandiose task of reviewing literature, synthesizing results, and suggesting possible new areas of study in the field of human development. Robert and Ruth Munroe use cross-cultural research data as the broad perspective in order to contrast modern and traditional societies on both developmental stages (infancy to adulthood) and developmental topics (physical growth, affect, language, perception, cognition, dependence, aggression, sex roles, and social motives). In realizing their first objective, the authors are successful. They provide a thorough overview of cross-cultural research on human development stages and topics. (Over 450 studies are reported and evaluated.) As a result, the book represents a valuable supplementary text for courses in intercultural communication. It can serve, furthermore, as a reference in related fields of study such as developmental psychology and cultura1 anthropology. Students, however, are sure to comment upon the wordy. convoluted sentences which inevitably result from an attempt to review numerous studies in a limited space. Another inherent problem involves the difficulty of pulling all of this data together in order to make sense of it and thus reach some conclusions. The authors endeavor to provide such a synthesis by first describing in depth three traditional societies, then reconsidering these societies in terms of the major points that have been made in each chapter. They hope “thereby to induce a thread of continuity among the disparate sections.” This effort at concretizing the abstract research literature does not work. Rather it adds to the confusion since the
Book
Reviews
215
societies sometimes fail and sometimes succeed in confirming the previously described research findings, thus requiring additional commentary on why such is the case. Furthermore, since the book length prohibits a complete and detailed analysis of these societies, they do not become concrete reference points; rather, the inhabitants are for the reader one more subject of research among the many others being reported. The rationale for studying human development from a cross-cultural perspective presented in the Introduction provides the organizing format for the book, and yet these assumptions are only mentioned again in the short final chapter on Conclusions. Had these thought-provoking propositions been reiterated as a summary for each chapter they would have systematized the material and made a forceful argument for utilizing a cross-cultural approach. The book length prohibits a thorough discussion of possible new areas of study; nevertheless, the authors do offer some promising suggestions for future research, i.e., the need for longitudinal research on cognitive development in traditional cultures. Two final observations on content recommend the book. The authors do not shrink from dealing with the race-genetics issue; rather, they provide an adequate refutation of the Jensen hypothesis. Furthermore, they openly question acceptance of current popular theories as developmental universals as they state, “the higher levels of, say, Erickson’s Eight Stages or of Piaget’s intellectual hierarchy sound suspiciously like modern man and no other” (p. 152). Kay Beck George State University Atlanta, Georgia
NONVERBAL BEHAVIOR: APPLICATION AND CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS
Aaron New York: Academic
WoIfgang Press, 1979, 225 pp,
While there are many texts on nonverbal communication presently available, few books adequately probe the cultural dimension of nonverbal behavior. In fact, texts that examine cultural variations in nonverbal behavior frequently tackle the issue in a single chapter which generally consists of a litany of outdated studies and a series of simplistic cultural generalizations. A refreshing departure from the current texts on