A history of cross-cultural research on childhood learning: cross-cultural contributions

This chapter reviews the history of cross-cultural childhood learning by describing the traditions, perspectives, methods, and philosophies that have shaped our field of research.We cover a broad range of topics, from developmental psychology, the history and traditions of different approaches and perspectives, contributions from evolutionary theory and archaeology, as well as noting the narrow framework of the western lens.We highlight the ways in which disciplines have come together to deepen our understanding of the nature of childhood learning.While we recognize the limitations of each approach and method, we focus our chapter on their unique as well as complementary contributions and how they have shaped the field today.This chapter can be construed as a roadmap of research on childhood learning, charting the history of the field.