Children, Spaces and Identity: (4 Childhood in the Past Monograph)

How do children construct, negotiate and organize space? The study of social space in any human group is fraught with limitations, and to these we must add the further limits involved in the study of childhood. Here specialists from archaeology, history, literature, architecture, didactics, museology and anthropology build a body of theoretical and methodological approaches about how space is articulated and organised around children and how this disposition affects the creation and maintenance of social identities. Children are considered as the main actors in historic dynamics of social change, from prehistory to the present day. Notions on space, childhood and the construction of both the individual and the group identity of children are considered as a prelude to papers that focus on analysing and identifying the spaces which contribute to the construction of children’s identity during their lives: the places they live, learn, socialize and play. A final section deals with these same aspects, but focuses on funerary contexts, in which children may lose their capacity to influence events, as it is adults who establish burial strategies and practices. In each case authors ask questions such as: how do adults construct spaces for children? How do children manage their own spaces? How do people (adults and children) build (invisible and/or physical) boundaries and spaces?

Table of Contents:
Part 1 CHILDREN, SPACES AND IDENTITY 1. Children, childhood and space: multidisciplinary approaches to identity Margarita Sánchez Romero, Eva Alarcón García and Gonzalo Aranda Jiménez 2. Steps to children’s living spaces Grete Lillehammer Part 2 PLAYING, LIVING AND LEARNING 3. Complexity, Cooperation and Childhood: An Evolutionary Perspective Juan Manuel Jiménez-Arenas 4. Children as potters: apprenticeship patterns from Bell Beaker pottery of Copper Age Inner Iberia (Spain) (c. 2500–2000 cal BC). Rafael Garrido-Pena and Ana Mercedes Herrero-Corral 5. Infants and adults relationships in the Bronze Age site of Peñalosa (Baños de la Encina, Jaén) Eva Alarcón García 6. Gender and childhood in the II Iron Age: The pottery centre of Las Cogotas (Ávila, Spain) Juan Jesús Padilla Fernández and Linda Chapon 7. “Playing with mud”: an ethnoarchaeological approach to childhood learning of pottery making in northeast Ghana Manuel Calvo, Jaume García Rosselló, David Javaloyas and Daniel Albero 8. Infantile Individuals: the Great Forgotten of Ancient Mining and Metallurgical Production Luis Arboledas Martínez and Eva Alarcón García 9. Learning to be adults: games and childhood on the outskirts of the big city (San Isidro, Buenos Aires, Argentina) Daniel Schavelzon 10. Disabled children living at home in nineteenth century Britain Mary Clare Martin 11. La evolución de los espacios de aprendizaje de la infancia a través de los modelos pedagógicos Victoria Carmona Buendía and Elisa Valero Ramos 12. Montessori y el ambiente preparado: un espacio de aprendizaje para los niños Fátima Ortega Castillo 13. Didactics of childhood: the case study of prehistory Antonia García Luque 14. Once upon a time… Childhood and archeology from the perspective of Spanish museums Isabel Izquierdo Peraile, Clara López Ruiz and Lourdes Prados Torreira 15. Home to Mother: The Long Journey To Not Lose One’s Identity Angela Anna Iuliucci Part 3. SPACE, BODY AND MIND: CHILDREN IN FUNERARY CONTEXTS 16. Use of Molecular Genetic Procedures for Sex determination in “Guanches” Children's Remains Matilde Arnay, Alejandra Calderón Ordóñez, Rosa Fregel, Guacimara Ramos, Emilio González and José Pestano 17. Salud y crecimiento en la Edad del Cobre. Un estudio preliminar de los individuos subadultos de Camino del Molino (Caravaca de la Cruz, Murcia, España). Un sepulcro colectivo del III Milenio cal BC Susana Mendiela, Carme Rissech, María Haber and Daniel Turbón 18. Infant Burials during the Copper and Bronze Ages in the Iberian Jarama River Valley: a preliminary study about childhood in the funerary context during III-II millennium BC Raquel Aliaga Almela, Corina Liesau, Concepción Blasco, Patricia Ríos and Lorenzo Galindo 19. Premature Death in the Vaccean Aristocracy at Pintia (Padilla de Duero/Peñafiel, Valladolid). Comparative Study of the Funerary Rituals of two Little “princesses” Carlos Sanz Minguez 20. Dying young in Archaic Gela (Sicily): from the Analysis of the Cemeteries to the Reconstruction of early colonial Identity Claudia Lambrugo 21. Maternidad e inhumaciones perinatales en el vicus romanorrepublicano de el Camp de les Lloses (Tona, Barcelona): lecturas y significados Montserrat Duran i Caixal, Imma Mestres i Santacreu and M. Dolors Molas Font 22. Cherchez l’enfant! Children and funerary spaces in Magna Graecia Diego Elia and Valeria Meirano 23. Children and their burial practices in the early medieval cemeteries of Castel Trosino and Nocera Umbra (Italy) Valentina de Pasca 24. La cultura lúdica en los rituales funerarios infantiles: los juegos de velorio Jaume Bantulà Janot and Andrés Payà Rico 25. Compartir la experiencia de la muerte. El niño muerto y el niño enfrentado a la muerte. Virginia de la Cruz Lichet

About the Author :
Margarita Sánchez Romero is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology at the University of Granada, Spain. Her main research area is archaeology of women and gender relations focusing her analysis on the study of the body, material culture and maintenance activities, and the archaeology of children and childhood, taking into account process of learning and socialization. Eva Alarcón García is scientific coordinator of a project at the University of Granada, Spain. She has previously worked as a researcher on a number of other projects at the university, and has also published a number of papers and books. Gonzalo Aranda Jiménez is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology at the University of Granada, Spain. His research interests are related to the emergence, development and collapse of complex societies in Late Prehistory of the southern Iberian Peninsula, focusing on topics such as the construction of social identities, the ritual practices of food and drink consumption, the social organization of pottery production, and the appearance of interpersonal conflicts that involve the use of violence.

Review :
...this monograph is good value with 25 well-crafted chapters […] there is much that can be learned from the attitudes and approaches presented here.