Boys and Girls in Space

On 6/20/06, Robert wrote:
(...)
> the roman attempt may have failed but the native american version
> thrieved. i dont know if it was all tribes that did so or only some,
> but they beleived that it was the responsibility of the entire tribe
> to raise the children. if a female had a child with out having the
> desire to raise it, there were others that would aid in that. same
> with with the father, if he did not take care of it, (while he was
> being osterzised for it) others would take care of the child.
(...)

It should be noticed though that within a native American (or native
Brazilian, getting an example closer to me) village everyone was to
some degree relative to everyone. So it is more like a culture were
big extended families - mothers, grandmothers, fathers, grandfathers,
uncles, cousins - live close to each other and take care of each
other. Some modern cultures (for instance my own latin/Brazilian
culture) resemble that. And of course there is an obvious genetic
interest/evolutionary advantage involved in that way of living. So the
native American vision was rather an extension of the concept of
family than a negation of it...