Abstract:

This research aims to see what may be the effects of singing the lullabies on the development of individual identity [1]. It describes a qualitative research, conducted on a sample of 105 female subjects of the hinterland around a big city like Naples. Participants shared the characteristic of being mothers and of belonging to a family in which there are three generations of mothers (grandmother-mother-daughter) [2]. So, the sample was formed by 35 families in which there were three generations of women. Research hypothesis were that lullabies have an educational function, from generation to generation, they can pass on ancient beliefs and values [3], but they are also an instrument of transfer of unconscious contents, from mother to her daughter. Lullabies can be tools for trans-generational transmission (based on the concept of unconscious psychic transmission) [4], and our interests of research is to explore the role of the lullabies in education and identity symbolization processes through interviews to the three generations of women in the same family [5].

The interviews were administered orally, recorded and then transcribed and in all cases took place in the house of the respondents. The questions are four, two closed (with the possibility to answer yes / no, even if it is left to the interviewees the opportunity to broaden the discourse, however, doing the necessary specifications) and two open questions concerning the feelings related the memory of the lullaby sung by her mother.

The collected data were analyzed both across the transgenerational and the transverse line, analyzing the responses of the various members belonging to the same families to understand what kind of differences there would be from a generation to another, but also analyzing the answers of people who belonged to the same generation but to different families in order to explore similarities and differences from a family to another.

The conclusions show empirically how it happens education through music and lullabies from generation to generation in unformal contexts: lullabies are a vehicle for the transmission of values, ideas, beliefs and contribute to the construction of personal, but also social and cultural identity. Moreover, it are explored the streets of interpsychic transmission in the female gender education [6].

References:
[1] Birckmayer, J., Kennedy A., Stonehouse, A. (2008). From Lullabies to Literature: Stories in the Lives of Infants and Toddlers. Washington, DC, USA : National Association for the Education of Young Children, Castle Hill, NSW, Australia : Pademelon Press.
[2] Dall’Argine, A. (2009). La prospettiva transgenerazionale: i contributi dell’analisi transazionale. International Journal of Psychoanalysis and Education, 3, 1.
[3] Unyk, A.M., Trehub S.E., Trainor L.J., Schellenberg E.G. (1992). Lullabies and Simplicity: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Psychology of Music, 20, 15, 1992.
[4] Abraham, N., Torok, M. (1975). La scorza e il nocciolo. Torino: Edizioni Borla.
[5] Baker, F., Mackinlay, E. (2006). Sing, soothe and sleep: A lullaby education programme for first-time mothers. British Journal of Music Education, 02, July 2006, pp. 147-160. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[6] Aulagnier, P. (1975). La violence de l’interprétation. Du pictogramme à l’énoncé. Paris : PUF.

Keywords:

Education, gender, music and lullabies, unformal educational settings.