Personality and Subsistence: Is the Child the Parent of the Person?

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Abstract
The substantial differences between the personalities of pastoralists and mixed farmers reported in the literature do not appear to be the result of distinctly different socialization practices. A comparison of mixed farmers with pastoralists according to 10 traits inculcated in childhood revealed that the 2 groups differed significantly on only 2 traits, fortitude and industriousness. The similarities between the 2 types of groups may be related to the fact that with 1 exception children are responsible for herding animals in both kinds of societies. The differences in adult personality may be more a response to the circumstances of adult life than to socialization pressures and task assignment in childhood. Among pastoralists, adults continue to execute the tasks for which they were responsible in childhood. Mixed farming, on the other hand, involves a switch from childhood herding activities to adult concern with field preparation, planting, crop tending and harvesting. Associated with the different bases for subsistence are a number of differing socio-cultural characteristics. Pastoralists live in smaller, more nomadic settlements. They have smaller families and more egalitarian inheritance patterns and are less likely to worship a high god involved in human moral affairs. Such differences would be influential in fostering the more independent, aggressive and emotional behavior typically described for postoralists. The extent to which early experience leaves permanent residues in the individual was discussed. The current situations in which people find themselves may be powerful determinants of their behavior. Adult institutions may be more influential in the determination of adult personality than socialization practices aimed at the inculcation of specific traits in children.

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