Care, socialization and play in Ancient Attica : a developmental childhood archaeological approach / Maria Sommer and Dion Sommer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sommer, Maria (Writer of Care, socialization and play in ancient Attica)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Education, Greek--Greece--Attikē.

Education, Greek.

Children--Greece--Attikē--Social conditions.

Children.

Child development--Greece--Attikē.

Child development.

Social conditions.

Attikē (Greece)--Antiquities.

Attikē (Greece).

Greece--Attikē.

Physical Description:

198 pages : 72 illustrations (chiefly color) ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

[Aarhus] : Aarhus University Press, [2015]

Summary:

Care, Socialization and Play in Ancient Attica serutinizes in how infants and young children were nursed, cared for and socialized in the oikos (family unit). In what ways were mothers and fathers emotionally engaged in their offspring or were they merely indifferent? What were the developmental consequences of growing up in multiple relationships? How were young children engaged in various types of play in everyday life and what toys were made for and handled by infants and young children? The developmental significance of toys and play is highlighted, as well as their cultural and sacral functions in ancient Athenian society. The subtitle A Developmental Childhood Archaeology Approach indicates an interdisciplinary paradigm by combining childhood archaeology with recent developmental childhood psychology. This book reconstruct the social and behavioural world of infants and young children in ancient Greece based on a rich collection of archaeological finds from the classical period. It presents a selection of never-before-seen child artifacts which uncover groundbreaking evidence supporting new ideas on child development. Despite a stark contrast to the world of infants and young children in the 21

Contents:

Part 1 Approaches to Childhood in Ancient Attica - Introduction 17

Developmental childhood archaeology - an interdisciplinary approach 17

A brief prologue 17

Childhood archaeology: Interdisciplinarity from the beginning 20

Developmental childhood psychology - main propositions 22

Child perceptions in ancient Greece: Literary sources and material culture 33

Focuses of the book: Time, space, age and specific material evidence 37

Content of the book 40

Part 2 The Care and Socialization of Infants and Young Children 45

Child-parent relationships in the household - the role of the mother and father 45

Beyond sentiment? High child mortality and infanticide 51

Multiple care, alloparenting and cooperative breeding 57

Infant feeding in the Classical period 64

The high chair-potty stool and its functions 69

Infant swaddling - evidence and explanations 75

Activating the infant - the rattle and adult-child relationships 78

Rattling in front of an infant 80

The exploring toddler boy 82

Sibling relationships 85

The religious world of the child - sacral actions and socialization 89

Part 3 Young Children's Play and Toys 105

The functions and meanings of play - a brief history 105

Did young children really play in ancient Attica? - the iconographic ambiguity 109

Children's play in Classical Attica 111

Toys in Classical Attica - the evidence 115

Dolls 115

Rollers, push- and go carts 123

Other types of children's toys 126

Miniature toys 130

Children with pets 131

Toys - objects to be used in many ways 139

Objects and toys - developmental perspectives 143

Part 4 Conclusions and Perspectives 149

Conclusions 149

Interpretative validity? - discussion and conclusion 152

A repeated call for interdisciplinarity 154.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9788771242973

877124297X

OCLC:

913197263

Publisher Number:

9788771242973