ANT 385-000: Special Topic: Anthropology of Childhood (Spring 2010)

This course will address the place of children in human cultures in a broad, comparative perspective, based on readings in both biological and cultural anthropology.  Orienting questions include issues of definition (What is childhood? Do other species have it?  What variations are there across cultures and through history in how childhood is defined?); issues of process (How does culture get inside us, as we grow up?  How do culture and consciousness emerge from the developing body?  How do genes, parents, and peers contribute to how we turn out as adults? How do we resemble our primate relatives in development, and what unique features do we add?  Why do the Aka, tropical hunter-gatherers, have the most devoted fathers in the world?); and issues of birth and death -- Why does the average woman in Ethiopia bear 6 children in her lifetime, and the average woman in Italy only one?  Why do ten million children die every year before the age of five?  We will also discuss how anthropological knowledge about children can inform social policy, and debate the merits of interventions on behalf of children: What are the most effective responses - educational, medical, and political - for improving the lives of children in the modern world?  A local ethnography project will involve students in documenting the lives of immigrant children in Atlanta.

Grading will be based on weekly responses to readings on Blackboard, class participation, and contributions to a local ethnographic project.