Navajo Infancy describes the major sources of changeand continuity in Navajo infant development. It does so bycombining concepts and methods of classical ethology withthose of social-cultural anthropology. The goal is to establishthe relationships between human nature and culture. Buyconsidering the nature of adaptation, and the evolution ofhuman developmental patterns, and through analyses ofthe determinants of change and continuity in Navajo infantdevelopment, Navajo Infancy outlines how the process ofdevelopment itself may bridge nature and culture.

With its special focus on the effect of the cradleboardon Navajo mother-infant interaction, Navajo Infancyraises important developmental issues in its analyses ofwhy the eff ects of the cradleboard do not last. Incorporatingthe Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scaleinto its ethological-anthropological methods, NavajoInfancy demonstrates signifi cant Navajo-Anglo-Americandifferences in newborn temperament. It fi nds a strongcorrelation between newborn behavior and prenatalenvironmental factors, arguing that racial and ethnic differencesin behavior at birth go well beyond simple genepool differences.

Navajo Infancy also describes the individual and groupdifferences in the development of Navajo and Anglo-American children's fear of strangers and patterns ofmother-infant interaction. Aspects of attachment theory,transactional theories of development, and anthropologicaltheories of socialization are related to this broad newevolutionary approach to the process of development andnature-culture interaction.

James S. Chisholm is professor at the school of Anatomy andHuman Biology at the University of Western Australia. Hisresearch interests include Biological and Biosocial Anthropology.He is the author of Death, Hope, and Sex and CulturalPersistence: Continuity in Meaning and Moral ResponsibilityAmong the Bear Lake Athapaskans (with S. Rushforth).

Cary Michael Carney is the program director of the ASVAB(Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) student testingprogram, covering Missouri and Kansas for the Departmentof Defense.