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.