Janet Simpson writes:   How
>children react to strangers has already been addressed, but I want to add
>that in our society, I WANT my child to shy away from people he doesn't know.
> I don't want him to go willingly and happily to someone just because Ezzo
>says he should.

I think maybe I didn't make myself clear in my earlier post.
Babies/children in Mali don't go to *strangers* any more than U.S. babies
do, they just have a much wider circle of relatives and friends with whom
they are comfortable, because they are held and played with on a daily basis
by these people since the day they are born.  Thus they don't form a
"primary" attachment just to mom, they form it to a large circle of
relatives and friends.  My son Peter, the one with Down syndrome, *cannot*
seem to understand the concept of stranger, and willingly hugs and kisses
everyone he meets.  We're still working hard on getting him to stop this,
but he just doesn't have a suspicious bone in his body, nor does he
understand that someone might hurt him.

Kathy Dettwyler