The Efe forager infant and toddler's pattern of social relationships: Multiple and simultaneous.

This study extends previous observations on the multiple caretaking system of newborns and young infants among the Efe foragers of Zaire, to Efe infants and toddlers, whose social contacts with mother, father, adults, and children at 5 and 8 months and at 1, 2, and 3 years were observed naturalistically. The Efe infant experiences a pattern of simultaneous and multiple relationships rather than a pattern that is initially focused on one person, most typically the mother, and that with development progresses to other relationships. This pattern is influenced by physical and social ecological factors and cultural practices. It is argued (a) that this pattern of social experience leads to a sense of self that incorporates other people and (b) that some of our assumptions about the nature of social development, especially that early relationships are hierarchical and sequential in nature, require reevaluation. Who are the people that make up the social world of the infant and toddler? How often are these people involved with them, and in what way? How does the infant's relationship with social partners change as the infant gets older? And what role do sociocultural, ecological, and biological factors play in shaping the infant's social network and experience? Knowledge of infants' and toddlers' social partners is central to understanding development because social partners play an important role in shaping infants' and toddlers' representations of self and the social world, their social, emotional, and cognitive capacities, and their affectionate relationships with other people. In this article we describe the social experience of Efe (Pygmy1) infants and toddlers, and we examine the social ecological factors associated with their activities. Our findings raise questions concerning popular models of early social relationships and suggest an alternative way of thinking about the social world of children. Until recently, scientific accounts (varying in theoretical orientation and relying on different empirical evidence) of the infant's early social experiences converged on the view that the infant progresses from a primary relationship with one individual (almost always the mother), or at most a very few individuals, to relationships with a growing number of people, most typically peers (Smith, 1980). This is an epigenetic, hierarchical view of social development. We have labeled this dominant