Family

“Lively, compelling, and refreshingly positive, Family delivers on its title in every way. If you are wondering how the family is changing now, in its amazing cultural variety, this is the book for you.” – Melvin Konner, MD, PhD, author of The Tangled Wing, Women After All, and The Evolution of Childhood
“Each of us is born needing a family and as we mature, seeking one. But exactly what is a family? Drawing on a lifetime of experience as an anthropologist and mother, Meredith Small surveys families around the globe, tracing these configurations through historical and evolutionary time. Recognizing that there is no one way for a human family to be, Small concludes that the hallmark of the human family is its flexibility and capacity to adapt to local circumstances.” * Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, author of Mother Nature, Mothers and Others, and Father Time. *
Praise for Meredith F. Small

“In elegant, engaging prose, Meredith Small shows the mother-child relation to be a microcosm of society.”
* Frans de Waal, New York Times bestselling author *
“Nothing less than a liberation. For too long parents have agonized…that there is one ‘right’ way to raise an infant. With engaging wit and profound scholarship…Small opens our eyes to the variety of child-care practices in other cultures.” * James Shreeve, author of The Neanderthal Enigma *
“So packed with compelling information about parenting practices around the globe that the reader may have trouble putting it down.” * Salon *

Meredith F. Small is a professor of anthropology at Cornell University and the author of several books, including Our Babies, Ourselves; What’s Love Got to Do with It?; and Here Begins the Dark Sea. She has written for Natural History Magazine, Discover, Scientific American, and is a commentator for National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. She lives in Philadelphia.

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