Anthropological Perspectives On Children As Helpers, Workers, Artisans, And Laborers (palgrave Studies On The Anthropology Of Childhood And Youth)
by David F. Lancy /
2017 / English / PDF
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The study of childhood in academia has been dominated by a mono-cultural or WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic) perspective. Within the field of anthropology, however, a contrasting and more varied view is emerging. While the phenomenon of children as workers is ephemeral in WEIRD society and in the literature on child development, there is ample cross-cultural and historical evidence of children making vital contributions to the family economy. Childrens labor is of great t to researchers, but widely treated as extra-culturalan aberration that must be controlled. Work as a central component in childrens lives, development, and identity goes unappreciated. Anthropological Perspectives on Children as Helpers, Workers, Artisans, and Laborers aims to rectify that omission by surveying and synthesizing a robust corpus of material, with particular emphasis on two prominent themes: the processes involved in learning to work and the interaction between ontogeny and childrens roles as workers.