Many modern social scientists take issue with the traditional criteria for comparing human development in a constantly changing world. Social scientists have long focused only on what the differences among groups are, rather than asking how and why these groups differ. Comparisons in Human Development examines ways in which different disciplines have historically regarded development and provides empirical examples that take a new approach to human activity and thought. This book's distinguished contributors share the view that the study of development must consider processes that operate over time and are regulated by varying physical, biological, social, and cultural contexts.