Singing caregiving behavior among the central African hunter-gatherers

Abstract (English)

Several caregivers taking care of infants, which is known as multiple caregiving, is practiced among central African hunter-gatherers (Tronick et al.,1987; Hewlett and Lamb eds, 2005). In these societies, how do allomothers care for infants and what impact does this have on infant well-being? This study focuses on the act of crying among infants, and aims to clarify the caregivers' responses to infant crying among the hunter-gatherers of central Africa.
Based on data collected from interviews that were conducted on every villager over 4 years of age in a village of Baka (who are a hunter-gatherer group in central Africa), it was found that the most common response to a crying infant is to sing. Both children and adults and both men and women sing for infants. “Singing care” may be one way for allomothers who are unable to breastfeed to respond to the physical, emotional and social needs of infants and makes it possible for people other than individuals who can breastfeed to be involved in childcare.
Observations revealed some features about singing care among the Baka. Caregivers sometimes sing loudly and at a higher tone, as if to cover up the crying of the infant, in addition to not always looking at them when singing. Caregivers sometimes sing from a distance as a voice-based method of caregiving, likely due to the limited visibility in the rainforests of which they reside in. Songs are sometimes also sung to infants simultaneously by multiple people during subsistence activities and it can be argued that this practice gives a sense to both the infants and caregivers that the infants are cared for by a community.
These findings reveal some examples of how multiple caregivers respond to when an infant cries and how they support the infants' sense of safety in Baka society.