Space to play: identifying children's sites in the Pleistocene archaeological record
by Michelle C. Langley, Evolutionary Human Sciences
Abstract:
Identifying the residues of children's activities in deep time contexts is essential if we are to build a comprehensive understanding of human cognitive and cultural development. Despite the importance of such data to human evolution studies, however, archaeologists have only recently begun to look for prehistoric children's material culture, and the identification of children's spaces is completely absent for deep time contexts. This paper draws together sociological and historical data regarding the universal need of Homo sapiens children for ‘secret’ places – places away from parental control. These spaces are important for the behavioural development of children and are universal in modern contexts. This paper demonstrates that these features can be identified in prehistoric archaeological records – and as such – researchers will have new datasets with which to interrogate the role of children in the development of their respective societies.
The statement 'the universal need of Homo sapiens children for ‘secret’ places – places away from parental control" is coming from the biased notion established by the WIERD research paradigm.
Both statements are wrong. one is about the 'universal' need for 'secret' places and the other is about parental control. The main difference between WIERD population- here I am adding the so-called educated from all the countries as education establishes the western bias among the non-western educated is that parents do not control children and children feel total freedom due to this to explore their contexts freely.
Children in the villages (rural, tribal) don’t have any designated playgrounds or play spaces. The entire village is their playground. There is no…