The ties that bind: Cradling in Tajikistan

Abstract

A traditional childrearing practice-"gahvora" cradling-in Tajikistan and other parts of Central Asia purportedly restricts movement of infants' body and limbs. However, the practice has been documented only informally in anecdotal reports. Thus, this study had two research questions: (1) To what extent are infants' movements restricted in the gahvora? (2) How is time in the gahvora distributed over a 24-hour day in infants from 1-24 months of age? To answer these questions, we video-recorded 146 mothers cradling their infants and interviewed them using 24-hour time diaries to determine the distribution of time infants spent in the gahvora within a day and across age. Infants' movements were indeed severely restricted. Although mothers showed striking uniformity in how they restricted infants' movements, they showed large individual differences in amount and distribution of daily use. Machine learning algorithms yielded three patterns of use: day and nighttime cradling, mostly nighttime cradling, and mostly daytime cradling, suggesting multiple functions of the cradling practice. Across age, time in the gahvora decreased, yet 20% of 12- to 24-month-olds spent more than 15 hours bound in the gahvora. We discuss the challenges and benefits of cultural research, and how the discovery of new phenomena may defy Western assumptions about childrearing and development. Future work will determine whether the extent and timing of restriction impacts infants' physical and psychological development.

Fig 1

(A) Gahvora with intricately carved details, fancy bindings, and coverings. (B) Plain-looking gahvora from a less affluent household.

Fig 2. Elements of the “gahvora” cradle.

(A) Side view. Traditionally, the cradle is handmade in walnut wood. Modern versions are machine-made from pine. (B) Front view illustrating curved base and how the cradle can be rocked from side to side. (C) External catheter called a “sumak” (note concave opening) for girls, and (D) for boys (note protuberance that fits around the penis) to collect urine. (E) A small bowl called a “tuvak” is placed under a hole in the bottom of the cradle to collect fecal waste and urine from the catheters. (F) Three mattresses, stuffed with millet or cotton, have holes to drain waste through the cradle bed into the tuvak. (G) Two wide bindings, made from cotton and velour, used to straighten and bind legs, arms, and torso, have long strings, which tie to the handle above the cradle. (H) Thick drapes (in winter) shut out light and keep infants warm; translucent drapes filter out patterned light (in summer) and protect infants from bugs; drapes cover the top and/or bottom halves of the cradle. (I) Mothers can breastfeed infants without removing infants from the cradle.

Fig 3. Quantitative description of the cradling process.

(A) We identified 8 sequential steps. (B) Percentage of dyads displaying each step across age. Solid lines show steps that were universal across dyads; dashed lines show steps that only some mothers displayed. (C) Duration (in seconds) of each step for each dyad across infant age groups. Symbols denote individual data from each dyad.

Fig 4

Distribution of cradling steps executed in order (read from bottom to top) for 146 mothers. Each bar represents one mother. Data are sorted based on mothers who completed all 8 steps to mothers who completed only 5 steps.

Fig 5

(A) Cluster classification based on distribution of gahvora hours during a 24-hour day using time-diary data. Timelines for each infant (represented by the horizontal raster bars), from 6 a.m. on the previous day until 6 a.m. on test day, split by cluster group. Dark colored bars represent times when infants are in the gahvora, light-colored bars show times when infants are out of the gahvora. Medium-shaded bars indicate that infants were in the gahvora for a fraction of the hour. (B) Show hour-block increments that best discriminate the cluster groups. Dark to medium red indicate 80–100% accuracy discrimination. Blue regions show hours that do not distinguish groups. (C) Accumulated cradling during the 24 hours across the 7 age groups. Symbols represent individual infants.