NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The oldest cultures in the world have mastered the art of raising happy welladjusted children. What can we learn from them Hunt Gather Parent is full of smart ideas that I immediately wanted to force on my own kids. Pamela Druckerman The New York Times Book Review When Dr. Michaeleen Doucleff becomes a mother she examines the studies behind modern parenting guidance and finds the evidence frustratingly limited and often ineffective. Curious to learn about more effective parenting approaches she visits a Maya village in the Yucatn Peninsula. There she encounters moms and dads who parent in a totally different way than we doand raise extraordinarily kind generous and helpful children without yelling nagging or issuing timeouts. What else Doucleff wonders are Western parents missing out on In Hunt Gather Parent Doucleff sets out with her threeyearold daughter in tow to learn and practice parenting strategies from families in three of the worlds most venerable communities Maya families in Mexico Inuit families above the Arctic Circle and Hadzabe families in Tanzania. She sees that these cultures dont have the same problems with children that Western parents do. Most strikingly parents build a relationship with young children that is vastly different from the one many Western parents developits built on cooperation instead of control trust instead of fear and personalized needs instead of standardized development milestones. Maya parents are masters at raising cooperative children. Without resorting to bribes threats or chore charts Maya parents rear loyal helpers by including kids in household tasks from the time they can walk. Inuit parents have developed a remarkably effective approach for teaching children emotional intelligence. When kids cry hit or act out Inuit parents respond with a calm gentle demeanor that teaches children how to settle themselves down and think before acting. Hadzabe parents are experts on raising confident selfdriven