Abstract
The introductory chapter provides a rationale for considering children’s work from an anthropological perspective. Work is central in children’s lives across cultures and throughout history. “Work-less” childhood is a modern phenomenon and still limited to relatively well-to-do families with few children. The author lays out the nature of the epistemology employed, as well as the sources of data and how they are utilized. The penultimate section of the chapter offers seven detailed case studies taken from the ethnographic record to give the reader a rapid glance at the phenomenon under consideration. The last section offers a preview of the ensuing seven chapters.
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Notes
- 1.
Although an economist argues that “on-the-job-training or learning by doing appear to be at least as important as schooling in the formation of human capital” (Lucas 1988, p. 27).
- 2.
At least some foraging societies combine characteristics of the Neontocracy and the Gerontocracy (Lancy 2015).
- 3.
An interesting exception is revealed in a short film of mature !Kung hunters actually teaching a young man to shoot accurately with bow and arrow. The young man being instructed had been accidentally shot with a poison arrow when young. He was considered too weak to hunt but now that he’s married and has a child; he needs to hunt so they teach him. The exceptional nature of the activity is highlighted in the hilarity displayed by the teachers while witnessing their struggling student (Wayne and Wawman 2002).
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Lancy, D.F. (2018). Work in Children’s Lives. In: Anthropological Perspectives on Children as Helpers, Workers, Artisans, and Laborers . Palgrave Studies on the Anthropology of Childhood and Youth. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53351-7_1
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