Anthropology of Childhood and Youth: International and Historical Perspectives

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Description

In Anthropology of Childhood and Youth, author Geoffrey Vitale shows the ways in which people understand, raise, and educate children and youth differently from century to century and from country to country according to the culture, lifestyle, politics, and economics of their place of origin. He also introduces the reader to the manner in which professionals relate to these matters, with a focus on an anthropological perspective. Vitale discusses similar problems and matters for inquiry a thousand years apart, and separated by oceans. The adoption or abandonment of children, for instance, created problems of inheritance, sexual relationship, and family support and integration in Ancient Greece, just as it does today in contemporary Japan. The author therefore, proposes a flexible tour of human society, intended essentially to introduce the reader to points of view, strategies, and approaches that go beyond the purely domestic, both in place and timewhich may introduce new ideas and present new theories and diverse understandings. Anthropology of Childhood and Youth establishes the work of a wide range of specialists and familiarizes readers both with their skills and their writings.

Reviews

Anthropology of Childhood and Youth: International and Historical Perspectives is a sweeping study of childhood across time and space. Geoffrey Vitale, while being attentive to scholarly discussions about the historicity of categories of childhood and youth, manages to provide a comprehensive look at how notions of childhood have transformed children's lives from pre-modern times through our own contemporary moment. The volume will be indispensable to any course on the history of global childhood. -- Rebecca Friedman, Florida International University
Geoffrey Vitales comprehensive history contributes importantly to an understanding of attitudes and actions toward waifs, orphans, slaves, dropouts, and other abandoned, protected, educated, exploited, and abused young people from the ancient world to the global society. Both informative and enlightening, Vitales comparative analysis will be indispensable to Childhood Studies scholars. -- Miriam Forman-Brunell, University of Missouri - Kansas City
Anthropology of Childhood and Youth: International and Historical Perspectives is a wide-ranging book, examining the process of growing up in many places throughout history. It is an exceptional resource to understand the complexity and often futility of trying to make generalizations about childrens place across time and between countries. The book is a must-have for anyone interested in researching the topic of childhood in world-historical perspective. -- Pamela Riney-Kehrberg, Iowa State University

Author Bio

Geoffrey Vitale is a former professor at the University of Quebec.