The author critically assesses the analogy, first made by Freud, between children and primitive peoples. He asserts that such similarities exist but not for the reason that Freud and most others believed. He argues that it is the enculturation of children in their middle-childhood years by other children that explains the resemblance between nonliterate peoples and the children of literate societies. His evidence derives in large part from his fieldwork with the Ilahita Arapesh of Papua New Guinea. He discusses the importance of middle childhood for the development of cultural values and morality.