Childhood (being a child) is a broad term usually applied to the phase of development in humans between infancy and adulthood. CHILD syndrome (or congenital hemidysplasia with ichthyosiform erythroderma and limb defects) is a genetic disorder Human beings, humans or man (Origin 1590–1600 L homō man OL hemō the earthly one (see Humus For the 2008 British film by Noel Clarke see Adulthood (film.

Research in social sciences

In recent years there has been a rapid growth of interest in the sociological study of childhood. The Sociology of childhood is a branch of Sociology focusing on the ways societies conceptualise and organize childhood Reaching on a large body of contemporary sociological and anthropological research, people have developed key links between the study of childhood and social theory, exploring its historical, political, and cultural dimensions. Anthropology (/ˌænθɹəˈpɒlədʒi/ from Greek grc ἄνθρωπος anthrōpos, "human" -λογία -logia) is the study of Social theory is an essential tool used by scholars in the analysis of society through the use of theoretical frameworks social structures and phenomena are analyzed and placed in context

Background and History

Playing Children, by Song Dynasty Chinese artist Su Hanchen, c. The Song Dynasty ( Wade-Giles: Sung Ch'ao was a ruling dynasty in China between 960&ndash1279 CE it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Chinese art ( Chinese: 中國藝術/中国艺术 has varied throughout its ancient history, divided into periods by the ruling Dynasties of China and changing 1150 AD.

Philippe Ariès, an important French medievalist and historian, published a study in 1961 of paintings, gravestones, furniture, and school records. Philippe Ariès ( 21 July 1914, Blois &ndash 8 February 1984, Paris was an important French Medievalist and Historian In academic usage medievalism is the study of the Middle Ages, also referred to as medieval studies. See also History An historian is an individual who studies and writes about History, and is regarded as an Authority on it He found that before the seventeenth century, children were represented as mini-adults. For the 2008 British film by Noel Clarke see Adulthood (film. Since then historians have increasingly researched childhood in past times.

Before Ariès, George Boas had published The Cult of Childhood. George Boas ( 28 August, 1891 &ndash 17 March, 1980)was a Professor of Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University.

Several historical events and periods are discussed as relevant to the history of childhood in the West. One such event is the life of Jesus Christ^[1] Christ taught that children were to be loved and revered, a departure from the ancients' attitude to children which was to be propagated in the Roman Empire during the next 400 years with the introduction of Christianity. Jesus of Nazareth (7–2 BC / BCE —26–36 AD / CE) The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial

During the Renaissance, artistic depictions of children increased dramatically in Europe. The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere This did not impact the social attitude to children much, however -- see the article on child labour. Child labor is the employment of Children at regular and sustained labour

The Victorian Era has been described as a source of the modern institution of childhood. Culture The Victorian fascination with novelty resulted in a deep interest in the relationship between modernity and cultural continuities Ironically, the Industrial Revolution during this era led to an increase in child labour, but due to the campaigning of the Evangelicals, and efforts of author Charles Dickens and others, child labour was gradually reduced and halted in England via the Factory Acts of 1802-1878. The Industrial Revolution was a period in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when major changes in agriculture manufacturing and transportation had a profound effect on the Evangelicalism is a theological movement tradition and system of beliefs most closely associated with Protestant Christianity, which identifies with the Gospel The Factory Acts were a series of Acts passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom to limit the number of hours worked by women and children first in the textile Year 1802 ( MDCCCII) was a Common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar or a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Year 1878 ( MDCCCLXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The Victorians concomitantly emphasized the role of the family and the sanctity of the child, and broadly speaking, this attitude has remained dominant in Western societies since then. The term Western world, the West or the Occident ( Latin: occidens -sunset -west as distinct from the Orient) can have multiple meanings

In the contemporary era Joe L. Kincheloe and Shirley R. Joe Lyons Kincheloe, born December 14 1950 in Kingsport Tennessee is a professor and Canada Research Chair at the Faculty of Education McGill University in Steinberg have constructed a critical theory of childhood and childhood education that they have labeled kinderculture. In the Humanities and Social sciences, critical theory is the examination and critique of Society and Literature, drawing from knowledge across Here Kincheloe and Steinberg make use of multiple research and theoretical discourses (the bricolage) to study childhood from diverse perspectives—historiography, ethnography, cognitive research, media studies, cultural studies, political economic analysis, hermeneutics, semiotics, content analysis, etc. For the Amon Tobin album with this name see Bricolage (album. Based on this multiperspectival inquiry, Kincheloe and Steinberg contend that new times have ushered in a new era of childhood. Evidence of this dramatic cultural change is omnipresent, but many individuals in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have not yet noticed it. When Steinberg and Kincheloe wrote the first edition of Kinderculture: The Corporate Construction of Childhood in 1997 (second edition, 2004) many people who made their living studying, teaching, or caring for children were not yet aware of the nature of the changes in childhood that they encountered daily.

In the domains of psychology, education, and to a lesser degree sociology and cultural studies few observers before kinderculture had studied the ways that the information explosion so characteristic of our contemporary era (hyperreality) had operated to undermine traditional notions of childhood and change the terrain of childhood education. In Semiotics and Postmodern philosophy, the term hyperreality characterizes the inability of Consciousness to distinguish Reality from Fantasy Those who have shaped, directed and employed contemporary information technology have played an exaggerated role in the reformulation of childhood. Of course, information technology alone, Kincheloe and Steinberg maintain, has not produced a new era of childhood. Obviously, numerous social, cultural, and political economic factors have operated to produce such changes. The central purpose of kinderculture is to socially, culturally, politically, and economically situate the changing historical status of childhood and to specifically interroge the ways diverse media have helped construct what Kincheloe and Steinberg call "the new childhood. " Kinderculture understands that childhood is an ever-changing social and historical artifact—not simply a biological entity. Because many psychologists have argued that childhood is a natural phase of growing up, of becoming an adult, Kincheloe and Steinberg coming from an educational context saw kinderculture as a corrective to such a "psychologization" of childhood.

See also

• List of child related articles
• Childhood and migration
• Early childhood

Footnotes

Further reading

• Ariès, Philippe. Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962.
• Boas, George. The Cult of Childhood. London: Warburg, 1966.
• Brown, Marilyn R. , ed. Picturing Children: Constructions of Childhood between Rousseau and Freud. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002.
• Buckingham, David. After the Death of Childhood: Growing Up in the Age of Electronic Media. Blackwell Publishers, 2000. ISBN 0745619339.
• Bunge, Marcia J. , ed. The Child in Christian Thought. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. , 2001.
• Calvert, Karin. Children in the House: The Material Culture of Early Childhood, 1600-1900. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1992.
• Cleverley, John and D. C. Phillips. Visions of Childhood: Influential Models from Locke to Spock. New York: Teachers College, 1986.
• Cannella, Gaile and Joe L. Kincheloe. Joe Lyons Kincheloe, born December 14 1950 in Kingsport Tennessee is a professor and Canada Research Chair at the Faculty of Education McGill University in "Kidworld: Childhood Studies, Global Perspectives, and Education". New York: Peter Lang, 2002.
• Cunningham, Hugh. Children and Childhood in Western Society since 1500. London: Longman, 1995.
• Cunnington, Phillis and Anne Buck. Children’s Costume in England: 1300 to 1900. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1965.
• deMause, Lloyde, ed. The History of Childhood. London: Souvenir Press, 1976.
• Higonnet, Anne. Pictures of Innocence: The History and Crisis of Ideal Childhood. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd. , 1998.
• Immel, Andrea and Michael Witmore, eds. Childhood and Children’s Books in Early Modern Europe, 1550-1800. New York: Routledge, 2006.
• Kincaid, James R. Child-Loving: The Erotic Child and Victorian Culture. New York: Routledge, 1992.
• Knörr, Jacqueline, ed. Childhood and Migration. From Experience to Agency. Bielefeld: Transcript, 2005.
• Müller, Anja, ed. Fashioning Childhood in the Eighteenth Century: Age and Identity. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2006.
• O’Malley, Andrew. The Making of the Modern Child: Children’s Literature and Childhood in the Late Eighteenth Century. London: Routledge, 2003.
• Pinchbeck, Ivy and Margaret Hewitt. Children in English Society. 2 vols. London: Routledge, 1969.
• Pollock, Linda A. Forgotten Children: Parent-child relations from 1500 to 1900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
• Postman, Neil. The Disappearance of Childhood. New York: Vintage, 1994.
• Schultz, James. The Knowledge of Childhood in the German Middle Ages.
• Shorter, Edward. The Making of the Modern Family.
• Sommerville, C. John. The Discovery of Childhood in Puritan England. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1992.
• Steinberg, Shirley R. and Joe L. Kincheloe. Kinderculture: The Corporate Construction of Childhood. Westview Press Inc. , 2004. ISBN 081339157.
• Stone, Lawrence. The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800. New York: Harper and Row, 1979.
• Zornado, Joseph L. Inventing the Child: Culture, Ideology, and the Story of Childhood. New York: Garland, 2001.

External links

• World Childhood Foundation