One thing that really surprised me while reading the Continuum Concept was that the Yequana children did not seem to go through the same stages of development (read Freud and Erikson) that ours do. For example: in the UK we refer to toddlerhood as the "terrible twos", this corresponds to Freud's anal stage where children learn about (and challenge) authority, so toddlers are expected to be little terrors, anyone noticed how many kids t-shirts (for boys at least) there are with "monster" written on them?
So why don't the Yequana children do the same? Is it because they don't fit into the western model of child development? Or is it that they have negotiated the first stage (learning about trust) so well that they don't have the need to challenge the people they trust so much?
What does this say about our unruly toddlers? That they don't trust us?
It could also be our definition of "bad" behaviour that needs looking at. I was recently in Italy and a lady in the playground kept telling off her toddler for all sorts of imaginary misdemeanors, was he really naughty or was the mother the one with the problem?
I find it hard to define what is "naughty" behaviour with my two year old as he has such joie de vivre that any mess he makes is not that important, so when is he challenging? He certainly says no and "don't want to" a lot but mostly I feel that he has a point (like not wanting to wear a specific pair of shoes, how do I know how comfortable they are?). Sometimes he does get upset when our plans don't coincide (me: go shopping, him: keep playing) but I find that after the initial upset (he's still small enough to be carried to the car...) he adapts to the situation quite well. Would a Yequana baby just follow mum blindly?
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