Social anthropologists ask question

Social anthropologists ask questions about how childhood, and the role of children, is seen within the communities they study, rather than how it fits into Western ideas about childhood.By doing this they seek to avoid imposing outside ideas onto people with very different understandings of the world or making valuejudgments on other people's ways of raising their children.While Westerners might take exception to eight-year-old girls working or to 12-year-old girls marrying, within their own communities such activities are seen as a normal and positive part of childhood. Indeed, seen through the eyes of non-Westerners, many "normal" Western childcare practices are seen as extremely bizarre and possibly harmful to children.Placing children in rooms of their own, refusing to feed them on demand, or letting them cry rather than immediately tending to them, are viewed very negatively in many societies and lead some to think that Westerners don't know how to look after children properly.