Hunt, Gather, Parent: What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us about the Lost Art of Raising Happy, Helpful Little Humans

＂The oldest cultures in the world have mastered the art of raising happy, well-adjusted children. What an we learn from them As a science reporter, Dr Michaeleen Doucleff took a trip to Mexico that was to change her life forever. Visiting a Maya village in the Yucatâan Peninsula, she encountered parents who treat their kids in a totally different way to us - without shouting, nagging or issuing time-outs. Fascinated by what she saw, Doucleff set out with her three-year-old daughter in tow to study and practise parenting strategies from families in three of the world’s most venerable communities: Maya families in Mexico, Inuit families above the Arctic Circle and Hadzabe families in Tanzania. In these cultures, parents build a relationship with young children that is vastly different from the one many Western parents develop - a relationship built on cooperation instead of control and trust instead of fear.＂--

Michaeleen Doucleff is a correspondent for NPR’s Science Desk. In 2015, she was part of the team that earned a George Foster Peabody award for its coverage of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Prior to joining NPR, Doucleff was an editor at the journal Cell, where she wrote about the science behind pop culture. She has a doctorate in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree in viticulture and enology from the University of California, Davis. She lives with her husband and daughter in San Francisco.