Anthropology of Children

Catalog description

Our children re-create culture and society as they grow up and take charge of the world. But how does this actually happen? What are the implications? In this course we look at children’s creative engagement and socialization, through the lens of anthropology, also borrowing from psychology, history, etc. We will pay special attention to how children learn, play, make-believe, and how they co-construct their own languages, cultures and societies. We draw on ethnographic studies of children, theories of childhood, as well as research on children who are disadvantaged, excluded, or captured for forced assimilation (historically, in 'Indian Schools', or in China's Uyghur genocide today), to understand both these unfortunate victims, and "normal" children.