| caption: |
Chapter Three. Phases of Life |
| caption: |
tender treatment of children ; infancy |
| text: |
Children were generally welcomed and treated with care and tenderness by both parents. The first months of infancy were spent mainly on the backs of parents and elder siblings. Usually, a Konyak woman resumed work on the fields a few days after her confinement, and wherever she went, she carried the baby. During breaks in field work she would feed the child, and when she returned to the village in the evening, she handed it to her husband while she prepared the evening meal. When a child was several months old and no longer entirely dependent on the mother's milk, it was left in the village in the care of an old kinswoman or of older brothers and sisters. |
