Anthropology of Childhood: Global Perspectives

this course will introduce students to the anthropological study of children and youth drawing on classical and contemporary ethnography. Students will explore the ways in which childhood is socially constructed with a wide breadth and variety of meanings and expectations. Students will become familiar with some socio-historical and theoretical frameworks to help them think critically about childhood as an object of ethnographic study.

We will challenge assumptions about childhood including depictions of children as passive receivers of cultural knowledge, and children as future workers. This course will engage students in ethnographic accounts that demonstrate a variety of contexts in which children learn and participate in everyday life outside of the classroom. In this course, we will consider how children and youth are active agents in shaping the world around them and conversely, how they are shaped by social, political and economic conditions. (Gen. Ed. SB, DG)