Survey: children & fire

Colleagues -- I am currently researching children's interactions with
fire in small-scale societies. If you have experience working with
such groups, I would greatly appreciate it if you could take a moment
to reply to this message (using my email address, dfessler "at"
anthro.ucla.edu [insert the @ sign yourself] , NOT the Reply button,
which will send your response to the entire list), answering the
following brief questions (all of the questions apply to the society or
societies in which you have conducted fieldwork; if you have conducted
fieldwork in multiple societies, just copy and paste the questions as
many times as needed):

1. Name of group/society/people at issue:

2. Do you know of any serious burns (including deaths) due to fire?
Please briefly explain (i.e., age of individual[s], outcome, etc.).

3. At approximately what age do children first begin interacting with
(i.e., manipulating, poking at, etc.) fire? Is there a gender
difference in this regard?

4. At what age do children typically begin playing with fire (carrying
burning objects, building play fires, etc.)? In what age range is such
behavior most frequent, if it occurs? Any gender differences?

5. At what age are children fully competent to maintain a fire? At what
age are children fully competent to start/build a fire? Any gender
differences?

6. Do children display entertainment interest in fire (i.e., watching
fire for long periods, manipulating fires to create interesting
effects, etc.)? Are there are age or gender differences? Do adults
display such interest?

7. Do adults or older children directly instruct children with regard
to the dangers of fire? How do children learn techniques for
maintaining a fire? How do children learn techniques for
starting/building a fire?

If you have colleagues who could usefully contribute to this database,
please forward this message to them.

Many thanks,

Dan

Daniel M.T. Fessler
Assoc. Professor of Anthropology
Dept. of Anthropology
341 Haines Hall
University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1553
U.S.A.

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