SOCIOL 2U06 Lecture Notes - Toilet Training, Public Health, Tabula Rasa
31 Oct 2013
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Document Summary
Childhood has a biological underpinning, but sociologists are interested in how childhood and childrearing are socially constructed. Ideas about children and how they should be raised have varied over time and place. What children are capable of/what we can expect of them. Tabula rasa blank slate: nature or nurture effects on capabilities. The place of children in larger society. Shielding them from the news or adult conversations. Aries, 1962: centuries of childhood a social history of family life. Argues that childhood as a distinct period is actually a fairly recent idea. In high need of others and protection: seen as this period of innocence, childhood is prolonged into young adulthood, much more dependent on parents than ever before. Immersed in the everyday life of adults: no thought of creating a separate space for kids, seen as small adults not qualitatively different, only quantitatively different in terms of size. Controversial critiqued: but the sociological relevance of the historical aspect is important.
