New parents are faced with innumerable decisions to make regarding the best way to care for their baby, and, naturally, they often turn for guidance to friends and family members who have already raised children. But as scientists are discovering, much of the trusted advice that has been passed down through generations needs to be carefully reexamined.<br /><br />A thought-provoking combination of practical parenting information and scientific analysis, <b>Our Babies, Ourselves</b> is the first book to explore why we raise our children the way we do--and to suggest that we reconsider our culture's traditional views on parenting.<br /><br />In this ground-breaking book, anthropologist Meredith Small reveals her remarkable findings in the new science of ethnopediatrics. Professor Small joins pediatricians, child-development researchers, and anthropologists across the country who are studying to what extent the way we parent our infants is based on biological needs and to what extent it i