Barbara Rogoff is UCSC Foundation Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has been a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, a Kellogg Fellow, and Editor of Human Development. Her books Apprenticeship in Thinking (OUP, 1990), Learning Together (OUP, 2001), and The Cultural Nature of Human Development (OUP, 2003) have received awards from the American Psychological Association and the American Educational Research Association. Her current book, Destiny and Development, deepens the ideas presented in her previous books, building on her three decades of research on human development in a Mayan community in Guatemala.

• Chapter 1. Beginnings: Stability and change ; Chapter 2. Living culture, across generations ; Chapter 3. Meeting Chona and San Pedro ; Chapter 4. Paper with a mouth, recounting the destiny and development of an Iyoom and her community ; Chapter 5. Born to a spiritual calling, across generations: Cultural heritage and resistance ; Chapter 6. Childhood and where babies come from ; Chapter 7. A becoming young woman ; Chapter 8. Changing memories in changing practices ; Chapter 9. Entry and prominence in a sacred profession ; Chapter 10. Ripples across generations and nations in Mayan pregnancy and childbirth ; Chapter 11. Ripples across generations and nations in birth destinies and postnatal care ; Chapter 12. Ways of learning across times and places ; Chapter 13. Traditions and transformations ; References ; Endnotes

Developing Destinies: A Mayan Midwife and Town, a remarkable book, is many things at once: a memoir, a cultural history, a theory of knowledge construction, and a labor of love ... Developing Destinies is unusual for an academic book. The beautifully written narrative is highly accessible, even gripping. It is enriched by photos that span decades. The account is personal and moving, weaving in stories of the author's own evolution as a participant-observer and ethnographer along with her relationship with Chona. At the same time, it has very broad reach, illuminating some of the most profound themes of human development. The book truly is a must read for all with interests in development or culture.