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Handbook of Cultural Developmental Science ReviewTHE BOOK:"HANDBOOK OF CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE"
Edited by Marc H. Bornstein
Psychology Press, Taylor and Francis Group; New York and Hove, East Sussex, 2010.
This book appeared to be excellent at first glance, but there are a number of factual errors on pages 77 and 78 concerning human quadrupedalism.
Human quadrupedalism was discovered and described by me, Uner Tan, in 2005 (1), and was later given the name of Unertan syndrome (UTS), which is associated with quadrupedality, primitive language, and severe mental retardation. Yet chapter 4, which describes human quadrupedalism, does not even mention Unertan syndrome, even though it is described, and the references on page 77 do not include my original or later papers on the subject. Instead the references cite a 2005 paper by Humphrey, Skoyles, and Keynes, published by the School of Economics in London.
I had invited Humphrey and Skoyles to Turkey with a view to collaboration, but they arrived with a cameraman from a film company, and later presented and published an article about the Turkish quadrupeds in the School of Economics, without informing me of this. Later still they made a film, which they sold to the BBC, and it appears in hindsight they had envisaged making a film all along, since they arrived in Turkey with a cameraman. The film caused widespread reaction, and I found it upsetting the way the family was exposed to the world. I would have preferred the cases had remained in the scientific realm and not made the subject of western "marketing".
On page 77, I. 14, the text states: "They displayed both diagonal (near-trot) and ipsilateral gaits (limbs on the same side of body move together)." In my years of studying the quadrupedal cases I have only seen diagonal gait, and not ipsilateral. The authors do not cite any references about their walking style and do not state how they know they displayed both walking gaits. Since my first publication on UTS (1), I have discovered 20 more quadrupedal patients in Turkey, and all of them exhibited diagonal-sequence quadrupedal locomotion. The diagonal-sequence gait is clear from the many videos now available of these patients. It is the same pattern of locomotion seen in crawling babies and in many animals, including our closest relatives, the chimpanzees.
There is another serious error on page 78, where it states the "children's parents never encouraged them to walk or provided supports to walk." First of all, I do not believe that neglecting to provide supports to walk would cause them to walk habitually on all fours, any more than neglecting to provide spectacles causes near-sightedness. (See Ozcelik et al. (2008) (2), for example.) Secondly, some UTS patients from a small village in southern Turkey (see Tan, Pence, Yilmaz, et al. (2008) (3)) were from a relatively well-off family, and had a relative who was a physician, and who attempted to treat the affected children, but with no success. The children were given walking aids such as crutches, but continued to prefer quadrupedal locomotion.
These results suggest socioeconomic factors are not primary in the origins of walking on all four extremities, and there were no environmental factors that forced the affected individuals with UTS to walk on all fours.
The statement on page 78 that: "A television documentary team provided the siblings with support rails, mechanical walkers, and a physiotherapist who encouraged them to walk. The five adult crawlers, for the first time in their lives, stood up and began learning to walk." also does not reflect the truth. The affected individuals had always been able to stand up and walk upright, but only with severe ataxia, and this was shown in the TV documentary in 2005. It is true the team supplied the siblings with support rails, but the patients have been using this device since 2005 with no success. They can stand and remain upright, and they can walk -- with severe ataxia -- but they still prefer quadrupedal locomotion. I visit them from time to time and I know their locomotion has not shown even the slightest improvement.
In summary, this book has a great deal of good information, but is marred by the factual errors and omissions as noted above.
(1)Tan, U. 2005. Unertan syndrome: quadrupedality, primitive language and severe mental retardation; A new theory on the evolution of human mind. NeuroQuantology, 4: 250-255.
(2)Ozcelik, T., Akarsu, N., Uz, E., Caglayan, S., Gulsuner, S., Onat, O.E., Tan, M., Tan, U. (2008). Reply to Herz et al. and Humphrey et al.: Genetic heretogeneity of cerebellar hypoplsia with quadrupedal locomotion. PNAS, USA, 105: E32-E33.
(3)Tan, U., Pence, S., Yilmaz, M. et al. (2008). "Unertan syndrome" in two Turkish families in relation to devolution and emergence of homo erectus: neurological examination, MRI, and PET scans. Int. J. Neurosci., 118: 313-336.
Handbook of Cultural Developmental Science OverviewResearchers and theoreticians commonly acknowledge the profound impact of culture on all aspects of development. However, many in the field are often unaware of the latest cultural literatures or how development proceeds in places other than their home locations. This comprehensive handbook covers all domains of developmental science from a cultural point of view and in all regions of the globe. Part 1 covers domains of development across cultures, and Part 2 focuses on development in different places around the world. The Handbook documents child and caregiver characteristics associated with cultural variation, and it charts relations between cultural and developmental variations in physical, mental, emotional, and social development in children, parents, and cultural groups. This contemporary and scholarly resource of culture in development covers theoretical, methodological, substantive, and ethnic issues as well as geographic approaches. Each chapter includes an introduction, historical and demographic considerations, theory, an overview of the most important classical and modern research studies, recommended future directions in theory and research, and a conclusion. The chapters focus on children from the prenatal stage through adolescence. Interdisciplinary in nature, the Handbook will appeal to human development theoreticians, researchers, and students in psychology, education, and pediatrics. Ideal for those new to the field, readers will appreciate the plethora of cultural examples from all fields of child and human development and developmental examples from all fields of cultural study.
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