Book
Anthropologogical Perspectives on Children as Helpers, Workers, Artisans and Laborers
(2017)
Abstract
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. Children’s “labor” is of great interest to researchers, but widely treated as extra-cultural—an aberration that must be controlled. Work as a central component in children’s 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 children’s roles as workers.
Keywords
- Anthropological,
- Studies of Childhood,
- Children as workers
Disciplines
Publication Date
January, 2017
Publisher
Palgrave-Macmillan
ISBN
978-1-137-53351-7
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53351-7
Citation Information
David F. Lancy. Anthropologogical Perspectives on Children as Helpers, Workers, Artisans and Laborers. New York(2017) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/david_lancy/148/