Childhood Flashcards
(14 cards)
What are the cross- cultural differences in childhood?
Benedict argues that children in simpler, non industrial societies are generally treated differently from their modern western counterparts in 3 ways:
- they take responsibility at an early age- punch’s study of childhood in rural Bolivia found- once 5, kids are expected to take work responsibilities in the home and in the community without question/ hesitation
-less value is placed on kid showing obedience to adult authority- firth found- among the Tikopia of the western Pacific, doing as you are told by a grown up is regarded as concession to be granted by the child, not a right to be expected by the adult
-children’s sexuality behaviour is often viewed differently- Malinowski found in Trobriand islanders of the south- west pacific, that adults took an attitude of ‘tolerance and amused interest’ towards sexual explorations and activities
- in many non- industrial cultures, there is much less of a diving line between the behaviour expected of children and that expected of adults , evidence illustrates that the key idea that childhood is no fixed, but is socially constructed and differs culturally to culture
What is the historical differences in childhood?
-Aries - in the Middle Ages ‘the idea of childhood does not exist’, children were not seen as having a different ‘nature’ or needs from adults
-after being weaned, the child entered wider society on the same terms as an adult, work from early age, often in the household of another family , considered ‘mini-adults’ with the same rights, duties and skills as adults
-e.g the law made often made no distinction between children and adults- faced same severe punishments as adults
- uses art work from his period as evidence- children appear without ‘any of the characteristics as childhood: they have simply been depicted on a smaller scale’, paintings show children and adults dressed in the same clothing and working and playing together
Shorter- parental attitudes were different, high seat rates encouraged indifference and neglect, especially towards infants
-e.g, it was not uncommon for parents to give a newborn baby the name of a recently dead sibling, to refer to the baby as ‘it’, or to forget how many kids they had
What is the modern cult of childhood?
Aries- elements of modern action gradually began to emerge from 13th century:
-schools (previously adults also attended) came to specialise purely in education of the young, reflected influence of the church, which increasingly saw children as fragile ‘creatures of God’ in need of discipline and protection from worldly evils
- growing distinction between children’s and adults clothing, by 17th century, an upper-class boy would be dressed in an ‘outfit reserved for his own age group, which set him apart from adults
-by 18th century,handbooks on childrearing were widely available- a sign of the growing child-centredness o family life, at least among MCs
- these developments culminate in the modern ‘cult of childhood’, we have moved from a world that did not see childhood as special, to a world that is obsessed with childhood.
- describes 20th century as ‘he century of the child’
What are the evaluation points for Aries views on childhood?
- criticised for arguing that childhood didn’t exist int he past, pollock argues that it is more correct to say that in the Middle Ages society simply had a different notion of childhood from today’s.
+ his work is valuable because it shows that childhood is socially constructed: he demonstrates how ideas about children have varied over time
What are the reasons for changes in the position of children?
- laws restricting child labour and excluding children from paid work
- introduction of compulsory schooling- the raising of the school-leaving age has extended this period of dependency
- declining family size and lower infant mortality rates- have encouraged parents to make a greater financial and emotional investment int he fewer children they have now
Why does Postman explain that childhood is disappearing?
- childhood is ‘disappearing at a dazzling speed’ , he points to the trend towards giving childhood the same rights as adults, the disappearance of children’s traditional unsupervised games, the growing similarity of adults’ and children’s clothing, and even to cases of children committing ‘adult’ crimes such as murder
-the cause first of emergence of childhood, and now its disappearance, lies in the rise and fall of print culture and its replacement by television culture
-during Middle Ages, most people were illiterate, and speech was the only skill needed for participation in the adult world, children were able to enter adult society from an early age
-children were not associated with innocence, nor the adult world with mystery
-no division between the world of the adult of that child
What is the information hierarchy?
- postman argues that childhood emerged as a separate status along with mass literacy, from 19th century- so on
- due to the printed word creates an information hierarchy: a sharp division between adults, who can read, and children, who cannot
- gave adults the power to keep knowledge about sex, money, violence ‘adults matters’ a secret from children - these became mysteries to them + children came to be associated with innocence and ignorance
- TV blurs the distinction between childhood and adulthood by destroying the information hierarchy- unlike the printed word, TV does not require special skills to access it, and it makes information available to adults and children alike
- the boundary between between childhood and adulthood by destroying the information is broken down, adult authority diminishes, and the ignorance and innocence of childhood is replaced by knowledge and cynicism
- the counterpart of the disappearance of childhood is the disappearance of adulthood, where adults’ and children’s tastes and styles become indistinguishable
What are the evaluation points of Postman’s views on childhood?
- unlike postman, Opie argues that childhood is not disappearing based on a lifetime of research into children’s unsupervised games, songs conducted with her husband
-argues that there is strong evidence of the continued existence of a separate children’s culture over many years
+ his study is valuable in showing how different types of communication technology, such as print and television, can influence the way in which childhood is constructed
- overemphasises a single-cause -television- at the expense of other factors that have influenced the development of childhood.
- wrote books on the ‘disappearance of childhood’ and used the smoking, drinking, violence from boys and sexualisation of girls as evidence
What is childhood in Postmodernity?
-Jenks- does not believe childhood is disappearing, but believes it’s changing
- agrees with Aries that childhood was a creation of modern society, modern society was concerned with ‘futurity’ and childhood was seen as a preparation for individual to become a productive adult in the future
- to achieve this, the vulnerable, undeveloped child needed to be nurtured, protected and controlled, especially by the ‘child-centred’ family and by the education system, which imposed discipline and conformity
- however, he argues, childhood is once again undergoing change as society moves from modernity to postmodernity- first relationships were more stable, now, the pace change speeds up and relationships become more unstable, e.g divorce becoming common
-generates insecurity
What is the march of progress view?
(Functionalist) Aries
- Argues over the past few centuries, the position of children in western societies has been steadily improving and today is better than it has ever been, e,g children are protected from harm and exploitation by laws against child abuse and child labour
What does Sue palmer argue about toxic childhood?
- against the view that the position of children now is better than it has ever been
- rapid technological and cultural changes int he past 25 years have damaged children’s physical, emotional and intellectual development - changes range from junk food to computer games
-concerns have also been expressed about young people’s behaviour, e.g, Uk youth have above average rates international league tables for obesity, self harm,etc - UNICEF survey in 2013 ranked in the Uk 16th/29th for children’s well being
What does Hillman argue about how inequalities affect the experience of childhood?
- gender differences- boys are more likely b allowed to cross or cycle on roads, use buses and go out after dark unaccompanied
Give examples of how society is more childcentred?
- have their own toys, TV programmes, ply areas made especially for them
-have their own doctors, teachers, education
- special food, drinks
What is the conflict view of childhood?
Marxist and feminists
