Topic 6 Childhood Flashcards
What do sociologists see childhood as?
- socially constructed
- differs between different times, places and cultures
What did Samantha Punch find during her study of childhood?
- she studied children in rural Bolivia
- found that once a child is 5, they are expected to work in the home and community
What did Lowell Homes find out during their study of childhood?
- studied a Samoan village
- found that ‘too young’ was never given as a reason for not permitting a child to undertake a task, like carrying heavy loads
What did Raymond Firth find during his study of childhood?
- found that among the Tikopia of the Western Pacific, doing as you’re told is regarded as a concession to be granted by the child
What did Bronislaw Malinowski find during their study of childhood?
- found that amongst the Tobriand islanders of the south-west Pacific, adults took an attitude of ‘amused interest’ towards children’s sexual explorations and activities
What do child liberationists argue about modern western childhood?
- child liberationists argue that modern western childhood is oppressive and children today are subject to adult authority
What does Aries and Shorter say about childhood?
- the idea of childhood did not exist in the middle ages
According to Shorter, what did high death rates in the middle ages encourage?
- encouraged indifference and neglect, especially towards infants
- it was not uncommon to give a newborn baby the name of a dead sibling, refer to the baby as ‘it’ or forget how many children they had
What is the march of progress view of childhood?
- position of children has been steadily improving
- Aries and shorter argue that children today are more valued, better cared for, protected and educated
- family and society is now more child centred
- there are higher living standards due to smaller family sizes
How have higher standard of living improved childhood?
- decrease in infant mortality rate, more people would rather live nicer than have more children
What does Sue Palmer say about childhood?
- rapid technological and cultural changes in the past 25 years have damaged children’s physical, emotional and intellectual development
What do conflict theorists say about childhood?
- there are inequalities amongst children
- not all children have the same status
What did Marilyn Howard say about childhood (conflict theorist)?
- children born into poor families are more likely to die in infancy, to suffer longstanding illness, to be shorter height, to fall behind at school and placed on child protection register
- poor diet stunts growth
What are the adult forms of control over children?
- neglect and abuse
- control over space
- control over time
- control over bodies
- control over access to resources
Who is the age patriarchy theorist?
Gittens
What does Gittens say about childhood?
- there is an age patriarchy of adult domination and child dependency
How can Gittens’ view of age patriarchy be evaluated?
- some control is justified on the grounds that children cannot make rational decisions and so are unable to safeguard their interest themselves
How can the march of progress view be evaluated by the conflict view?
- march of progress is based on false and idealised images that ignore important inequalities between children and adults and amongst children
What does Postman argue about the disappearance of childhood?
- children are gaining the same rights as adults, dressing in the same way and committing adult crimes
Why does Iona Opie argue childhood is not disappearing?
- there’s strong evidence of a continued existence of a separate children’s culture, eg games ryhmes and songs exist that are associated with childhood
Who is the post-modernist theorist that explains childhood?
Jenks
What is Jenks’ view on childhood?
- childhood is undergoing a change as society becomes postmodern
- childhood continues to be a separate status
How can Jenks’ view on childhood be evaluated?
- Jenks is guilty of overgeneralising
- despite greater diversity of family and childhood patterns, he makes sweeping statements that imply all children are in the same position, which is false
Suggest 2 ways childhood in no industrial cultures often differs from childhood in the west?
- more freedom
- don’t have to work
Give 3 examples of parental neglect towards children in the middle ages?
- forced to work
- high infant mortality rate - named children after dead sibling
- more children
Why does Jenks think parents have become more fearful for her children’s security?
- relationships are becoming more unstable, and divorce is more common
- this instils abuse into the parents as they feel the need to protect them
Why are children less of an economic asset to their parents today than they were in the past?
- children do not work
- 1 child costs £200,000 by the time they’re 18
Give one example of class differences between children?
- poorer families do less well in education, a poor diet stunts growth
What is age patriarchy?
- imbalance of power between adults and children
