Look, that all sounds very nice for civilized people. But childhood itself is a creation of civilization. Childhood didn’t exist until we had the leisure to allow it. And now civilization has progressed to the point where children don’t really ever have to grow up or assume care of themselves and others. Ya see em sleeping in tents on the corner. Still 12. No bills, no cares. Can you spare a dollar?
As far as I can recall, I was never a ‘child’. I was a smaller person with my own motivations and drives. Childhood, as we regard it, with its mystical properties is a myth.
Look, that all sounds very nice for civilized people. But childhood itself is a creation of civilization. Childhood didn’t exist until we had the leisure to allow it. And now civilization has progressed to the point where children don’t really ever have to grow up or assume care of themselves and others. Ya see em sleeping in tents on the corner. Still 12. No bills, no cares. Can you spare a dollar?
Sociologists love making that claim, but it’s not true.
A long childhood followed by extremely experimental puberty is indeed a biological feature of our species.
There have been societies that suppressed childhood due to labor needs, but that came after many more had thrived respecting it.
Modern childhood is indeed new… Compared to western European tradition, not to our species as a whole.
Well thanks, but I didn’t finish my doctorate. I’m not really a sociologist. It’s just a hobby.
childhood is something all complex animals have, playing is how we learn to do things needed to survive.
As far as I can recall, I was never a ‘child’. I was a smaller person with my own motivations and drives. Childhood, as we regard it, with its mystical properties is a myth.