Children in Action: Perspectives on the Archaeology of Childhoods(APAZ – Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association)

This volume describes broader themes and histories in the archaeological and anthropological study of childhood. Some of these broader issues include how archaeologists have situated childhood studies within the discipline, how archaeologists have identified children through the archaeological record, and how the archaeological study of childhood leads to interdisciplinary conversations across the subfields. The collection of essays addresses long-standing omission of children in the study of social, economic, religious, and political studies of the past. As such it is an important contribution to scholars of research methods, the history of the disciplines of anthropology and archaeology, social historians and those interested in cross-cultural perspectives on children.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: The Archaeology of Childhood in Context Jane Eva Baxter SECTION I: ETHNOGRAPHIC AND ETHNOARCHAEOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO CHILDHOOD IN ARCHAEOLOGY Constructing an Archaeology of Children: Studying Children and Child Material Culture from the African Past Flordeliz T. Bugarin Childhood Learning and the Distribution of Knowledge in Foraging Societies Kathryn Keith The "Nature" of Childhood: Ethnography as a Tool in Approaching Children in Archaeology Kelly Thomas SECTION II: CHILDREN AND MATERIAL CULTURE: IDENTIFYING CHILDREN IN THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD Growing Up North: Exploring the Archaeology of Childhood in the Thule and Dorset Cultures of Arctic Canada Robert W. Park Children and Ceramic Innovation: A Study in the Archaeology of Children Patricia E. Smith Making Space for Children in Archaeological Interpretations Jane Eva Baxter Redefining Childhood through Bioarchaeology: Toward an Archaeological and Biological Understanding of Children in Antiquity Megan A.Perry SECTION III: COMMENTARY Dominant Discourses; Lived Experiences: Studying the Archaeology of Children and Childhood Kathryn A. Kamp Materializing Children: Challenges for the Archaeology of Childhood Helen B. Schwartzman List of Contributors

About the Author :
Jane Eva Baxter is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at DePaul University. Her research interests include the archaeology of childhood, landscape archaeology, the archaeology of labor, identity and everyday life, contemporary material culture studies, and community-based archaeology.