Mother and Child: Visions of Parenting from Indigenous Cultures - Softcover

"All writers go to great lengths for their craft; Jan Reynolds literally goes to the ends of the earth, racing to document the world's endangered cultures before they disappear. Whether clinging by her fingers to a glacier wall while crossing a Himalayan mountain pass, paddling solo down the Amazon river or launching into the Sahara desert on camelback in search of a tiny nomadic tribe, this intrepid woman, world-class athlete, successful photographer and author, will do whatever it takes to get the material she needs."--Publishers Weekly

"The photographs are remarkable for their intimacy and beauty, but what is important about her books is Jan Reynolds's sincere sense of the majesty of the world's people. By sharing an empathetic and unsentimental glimpse of them, she gives us all a great gift."--The New York Times

"This is a beautiful book in every respect, and if it may strike some in our 'civilized' society as other worldly, it nevertheless offers a lucid and informed vision of very basic realities. Most mothers will understand what it says, and so will concerned fathers. Maybe it would help if this book could be read and pondered by all those bureaucrats and politicians who keep trying to tell us what they think 'family values are all about.'"--Lee Pennock Huntington, Sunday Rutland Herald and the Sunday Times Argus

"Reynolds' respect for both the indigenous peoples and the land itself is evident as she shares her discovery of how a deep connection with the natural world strengthens the primal nature of the mother-child bond. . . . This little book is a treasure. A delight to look at, a pleasure to read--and to share with your children."--The Wellspring Guide

Mothers shape the world in which we live through the love and guidence they give their children. Award-winning journalist and photographer Jan Reynolds explored the mother/child relationship through seven stages of life--marriage, pregnancy, birth, infancy, toddling, independence, and adolescence--while living with women in the Himalaya, the Sahara, the Aboriginal Outback, the Amazon Territory, above the Arctic Circle, and Mongolia. Reynolds was struck by the special relationship of these women and children and their deep connection with the natural environment. Her stories and photographs chronicle the ancient art of mothering and describe ways mothers in the modern world can incorporated these indigenous methods into their own lives.