In January 2025, Dr. Carolina Remorini, researcher with the AFIN Group, published the article “Becoming a Caregiver: The Role of the Environment in the Process of Children Becoming Responsible for Others” in the journal Behavioral Sciences, 15(1) (https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15010049 ). The paper is part of the special issue “The Interaction between Cultural and Environmental Factors in Children’s Development,” guest-edited by Dr. Lucía Alcalá (California State University), Dr. Guadalupe Díaz Lara (California State University), and Dr. Paula Alonqueo (Universidad de La Frontera).
The article is based on ethnographic research conducted by Dr. Remorini between 2013 and 2018 in rural and Indigenous communities of the Calchaquí Valleys, in northwestern Argentina. Aligned with the ecological approach to human development, the study highlights the central role of culture as a constitutive part of the environment in shaping diverse trajectories of child development.
Through the analysis of a cultural practice that involves taking responsibility for the care of domestic animals from an early age, the article examines how these daily routines contribute to the development of social, emotional, cognitive, and physical skills necessary to become a person capable of caring for others. In this context, the article proposes that the capacity to care is a developmental milestone and draws on the concept of “mutual caregiving” to understand the relationships between children and animals and their role in the construction of personhood.
Finally, the article offers a critical reflection on the limitations of hegemonic perspectives in child development studies and public policies, emphasizing the need to incorporate anthropological evidence and historically marginalized cultural experiences.