Childhood Flashcards
(40 cards)
How do sociologists define childhood?
Something that is socially constructed and the position they occupy in society is not fixed but differs
What is the Modern Western notion of childhood?
Children are fundamentally different from adults and are regarded as physically and psychologically immature
What is Pilcher’s view on childhood?
Separatedness, childhood is a clear and distinct life stage
What is a belief based on the Modern Western notion of childhood?
Children’s lack of skills and knowledge means they need a lengthy, protected period of nurturing and socialisation
How is childhood emphasised as a distinct life stage?
Difference in clothing, toys, food, books, products etc
What is another view related to separatedness?
Childhood is a ‘golden age’ of happiness and innocence
What did Wagg find?
Different cultures construct or define childhood differently
Why are cross-cultural differences in childhood important?
A good way to illustrate how childhood is socially constructed
What did Benedict argue?
Children in simpler, non-industrial societies are generally treated differently, much less of a dividing line between adults and childrens behaviours
Name 3 ways in which Benedict claims how children are treated differently in different societies.
- Take responsibility at an early age (Punch’s study in rural Bolivia; age 5 already helping)
- Less value placed on children showing obedience to adult authority
- Children’s sexual behaviours are often viewed differently
How has Western childhood been globalised?
International humanitarian and welfare agencies have exported and imposed western norms of what childhood should be
What do historians argue that childhood is?
A relatively recent invention
What does Aries say about childhood in the Middle Ages?
- The idea of childhood did not exist; children were ‘mini-adults’
- Same rights and duties and often faced with same severe punishments as adults
What does Aries use to demonstrate childhood in the Middle Ages?
Work of art, in these children appear without any of the characteristics of childhood only depicted on a smaller scale
What does Shorter argue?
- High death rates encourage indifference and neglect (not uncommon for children to be called ‘it’ or parents to lose track of children count)
What developments culminated the modern cult of childhood?
- Schools came to specialise purely in the education of the young (reflects the influence of the Church as children being ‘fragile creatures of God’)
- Growing distinction between children’s and adults clothing
- Handbooks on child rearing widely available
What did Aries conclude about modern childhood?
We have moved from a world that did not see childhood in any way special, to a world obsessed with childhood, he describes the 20th century as the ‘century of the child’
What were the reasons for the change in the position of children?
- Laws restricting child labour
- Introduction of compulsory schooling
- Child protection and welfare legislation
What did Postman say about the disappearance of childhood?
‘Childhood is disappearing at a dazzling speed’ and the emergence of childhood lies in the rise of print culture and disappearance in television culture
What was the information hierarchy?
Childhood emerged as a separate status because of print culture which caused a sharp division between adults who can read and children who cant read
How did television culture affect childhood?
Blurs the distinction between childhood and adulthood by destroying the information hierarchy
What was the difference in Aries and Jenks studies?
‘Futurity’, how childhood was seen as a preparation for adulthood
What is Jenks current say on childhood today?
Childhood is undergoing change from modernity to post modernity.
In post modern society, what are adults relationships with their children like?
Relationships in society become unstable which generates feelings of insecurity so relationships with children becomes a refuge from the constant uncertainty and upheaval of life
