How nomads raise white children

Native Sami family from Norway, 1936

(Patrushevs) The ancient ways of raising kids by northern nomads, the Sámi for example, is so different from modern Western methods.

Where's their babysitter, the television? How are they supposed to wean their kids without a TV?

It's almost certain Piaget, the famed developmental psychologist, would not approve. What if they grow up with a complex about reindeers or yellow snow or something? It's too risky. Bring them indoors and tie them to an apron string and yell at them until they're neurotic just like the parents.

White "Indians" living in tipis in Scandinavia

Of course, maybe we in the West have far more to learn from them than they do from us, judging by outcomes and the lengths of our comparative child rearing traditions.

It's eerie and seemingly inexplicable the way people far afield can look so much alike in their traditions and style. In Buddhist Ladakh, in the Indian Himalayas next to Tibet, there are black and white photos of American Indians. Why they're there, no one can say. But looked at more closely -- beyond the long straight black hair, sun kissed skin, silver and turquoise jewelry, hairless faces, horses, colorful cotton cloth with geometric patterns and unique designs, one is startled to realize they are not Native Americans at all. They are traditional Tibetans (Ladakhis, too), who are cowboys sporting cowboy hats who roam with the buffalo (bison) on the Tibetan plateau.

Scandinavian teepees in Sweden and Norway

To see photos of ultra-Scandinavian Sami, the original inhabitants of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia (or Sapmi, Fenno-Scandinavia, a region formerly referred to as Lapland), one cannot help but be struck how they, too, look exactly like American Indians. They live in teepees, make colorful cotton clothes and wear animal skins, follow shamans, and require very close inspection to see the tiny differences that make all the difference to us as we try to distinguish one tribe of nomads from another. The way they all raise their children is very similar and very different from our modern ways.

• Mongolian reindeer herders defend traditions | Global Oneness Project
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• Patrushevs, Jan. 4, 2025; Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly, COMMENTARY