Time after time

Dorothy Lee provides us with a new radical sense of culture. Her studies of aboriginal societies such as the Navaho clearly show that “the principle of personal autonomy is supported by the cultural framework” (Dorothy Lee 5). In Lee’s studies of several Native societies, she states that it is their articulation of certain aspects of the cultural framework such as child rearing, social structure and language that makes it possible to enjoy an environment of inviolable personal autonomy.
All known societies of the contemporary world practice a form of child rearing. Lee illustrates through examples that in certain societies there exists “no minority status for children” (12), in fact, there is the mentality that it is not the right of the parent to give permission or freedom because it is not within their right to give. Freedom, in terms of autonomy, is something biological within all individuals; children are no exception. This means that it is necessary to receive the chi...