The Historical Context of Childhood 1

The Historical Context of Childhood 1

RUNNING HEAD: THE HISTROICAL CONTEXT OF CHILDHOOD

The Historical Context of Childhood

Molly H. Minkkinen, Ph.D

University of Minnesota Duluth

Abstract

Throughout recorded history the view of children and childhood has been paradoxical in nature. This paradox has been found through works of art, diaries, and stories. The history of childhood has been uncovered by people like Philippe Aries and Lloyd deMause. Their findings indicate that adults have consistently held two (or more) contradictory views of children. This can be seen as far back as Plato’s time. Plato stated that children are to be cared for by the adults in the community. At the time of that statement the children of Greece were being enslaved, tortured, and molested by the adults of the communities. In current times Hillary Clinton wrote about the need for all citizens to participate in the raising of children in the U.S. In her writing she sited an African concept of an entire village raising a child. While the book was read by many adults children were left in child care situations that had long been determined to be detrimental to children in the U.S.

As long as there have been children there has been debate about their position in society, their worth to the community and the treatment they are worthy of. A debate about their childhood.

Key words: History, Childhood, Worth, Society

The welfare of children from birth onward is the responsibility of the entire community.

Plato, 428 BC-348 BC

It is a cold fall evening, and the cries of a newborn baby intertwine themselves with the autumn breezes. The fifteen-year-old mother’s own cries float to the ground with the brittle brown leaves as she realizes it is finally over. The midwife whispers her comfort to the young mother. There is pain for the mother and child, but it is in the year 310 BC. It would not be until the 18th Century that a physician would consider assisting a pregnant woman as she delivered her child into the world (Collier Encyclopedia, 1997). This newborn is simply the biological byproduct of sexual intercourse between a child and the man who owns her. The mother is a child herself, grasping the strange hands of the midwife who was sent to help her. The mother knows her pain. She knows there is not remedy that the midwife can give for it. She quietly relies on the wisdom she knows the midwife possesses. She looks down at the small living, sucking, crying consequence that has been placed into her lap. Her infant daughter has come into the world right as great philosophers like Plato are professing “that the welfare of children from birth onward was the responsibility of the entire community” (Hewe, 1995). Although these words are spoken, the young mother knows that in reality most female children are put to death by exposure, or sold into slavery as she had been. The infanticide this mother considers is not a new concept. Research of the prehistoric times indicates that there was a sex ratio of 148 to 100 in favor of men (deMause, 1988). However, it would be sixty-five years before infanticide would be considered a capital offence in Greece; the birth land of the newborn baby.

As the new mother gazes at the life she holds in her arms she considers the costs and benefits of her daughter’s survival. If she chooses to let her daughter live the newborn will endure a childhood that will be considered unimportant. This will be partially due to her gender and partially due to her lack of development. If the baby lives to age five or six, she will be used for domestic labor or as a sexual slave. This mother of no means must steel food to feed herself and knows that feeding another could cost her her own life. The young mother is also convinced, and reassured by her midwife, that this newborn child is innately evil. The mother will need to spend the child’s early years beating and threatening the child. The mother believes this manner of parental treatment would pay for her own sins as well as protect her daughter from the sin that was inevitable. By morning the young mother came to terms with the fate of the unsuspecting child. The child of no worth, with no rights and no future will need to die. It is her destiny. Hers is a destiny like so many before her, and like so many that will follow her.

Historians like Lloyd deMause state that the practice of infanticide of both legitimate and illegitimate children was a regular practice of antiquity. The killing of legitimate children was slowly reduced during the middle ages but has continued into the nineteenth century (deMause, 1988). The practice of child slavery and abuse has continued on as well.

The child who died that fall morning was spared a life of uncertainty and maltreatment at the hands of the entire community.

“Children are incompletely developed, so the goal of education should be to help children outgrow their animal like nature so that they will find happiness as adults in rational behavior.”

Aristotle, 384-322 BC

A young boy wanders the streets of Rome. He has a gold ball around his neck to denote his unavailability to be used sexually by the men of the village. During this time, gold balls are only worn on chains around the necks of children of high social status. Like all children, rich and poor he started his life swaddled. This practice is common for the era. Swaddling has great advantages for the adults who care for children. After the two-hour swaddling process that includes adjusting stays and wrapping cloth tight enough to slow a child’s heart rate, the child is left sleepy and lifeless. Children of this time are know to be laid for hours behind hot stoves, in tubs and hung on pegs (deMause, 1988). By the age of two children are let out of their swaddling, and they are allowed to use the limbs that have been still their whole lives. They have strings attached to their clothes to hold them up and control their movements. Children are placed on standing stools for hours so that they will not crawl; crawling is thought to be animal like (deMause, 1988). Children around this boy are being sold and murdered. He watches as his age-mates are beaten and molested by strangers. They are sealed in walls and foundations to give strength to buildings. The boy watches as they take away a young girl. They will sacrifice her to a god that he does not yet understand. Most children are sent to strangers to be raised. This boy does, however, live in a time that is better than the past. He lives in a time that provides education to young advantaged males. Ones like him. As a ten year old he has survived a tramaultoris childhood and looks forward to his formal education and has hopes of growing up to work as a scribe. One day he will have children, strong boys who will work for him. He might consider keeping a girl but no more than one.

A man can do what he wants with his children, for do we not cast way from us our spittle, lice and such like things unprofitable, which nevertheless are engendered and bred out of out own selves.

Aristippus, Fourth Century

It is the year 1212; a neighbor is standing at the bedside of a mother who has just given birth to her fifth child, “five little brats.” She offers a word of encouragement by saying “before they are old enough to bother you, you will have lost half of them, or perhaps all of them.” (Aries, 1962) If this child dies there will be no record of the time it spent on earth. No one will even think of keeping a picture of a child. It doesn’t matter if the child lives to grow to manhood or dies in infancy. This byproduct of mating has been born at a time when childhood is simply unimportant. There is no reason to keep records of such an insignificant time in a person’s life. If a child dies it is thought that the little thing that disappears so soon in life is not worthy of remembrance (Aries, 1962).

Although this tired woman lay overwhelmed by the thought of another needy child at her breast, she finds comfort in the fact that the weak ones will die and the strong ones will become useful in time. They will work at home or be sold for profit. The fate of these children is uncertain. However, Christianity dictates that through birth their immortal souls enter the world. Each of the woman’s five children have been baptized as soon as they are born in order to ensure that they will not return after death to pester the living. Children who die before baptism will be buried anywhere like one might bury a cat or dog. Upon the death of his newborn son a parent said “ He was such an unimportant little thing, so inadequately involved in life, that nobody had any fears that he might come return after death and pester the living.” (Aries, 1962)

This mother of five is fortunate to live in a time that is better than the time before her. This era provides parents with options. She may choose to send her children away. She has three young boys who might, in time, bring a substantial price if sold. If she was a woman of wealth she would surly send her children away to a wet nurse. The children would have stayed with the wet nurse until the age of five. At the time of their return they could be put to good use in care of the home, sent to a school, or sent to monastery. However, with her existing social status the best she can hope for is the sale of her offspring. Or at least their death.

It is important that children, even when babies, should never be spectators of anger, or any evil passion. They come to us from heaven, with their little souls full of innocence and peace; and, as far as possible, a mother’s influence should not interfere with the influence of angles.

Child, 1800

Born just this morning there are no arms to hold him. He is waiting for a breast to fill is aching belly. He is hearing the sounds of the world around him, holding onto the memory of the face he gazed into hours ago. He is waiting. Feet walk past…are they hers? Voices fade… where did she go? He is so cold…

Footsteps. He hears a voice but it isn’t hers. He can feel warm fingers against his exposed skin. A blanket. It is soft.

Records of the eighteenth century clearly show that there was still a high incidence of infanticide in every country in Europe. The dying baby boy on the street is taken to a foundling home. Foundling homes were established to provide refuge for infants and young children cast away by their mothers (deMause, 1988). Thomas Coram opened his Founding Hospital in 1741 because he could not bear to see the dying babies lying in the gutters and rotting on the dung heaps of London. In 1890 dead babies were still a common sight in London streets (deMause, 1988).

One baby left for dead may now live…

This baby is allowed to live in a better time than the children before him. The simple fact that he is alive is testimony to that. The children before him would have died. They would never have been missed and never had the chances to thrive, as he will. Even the words to describe this baby found in the street were used indiscriminately. The mere idea of his childhood was bound up with the idea of dependence. As for this child, he will not leave childhood as long as he is dependent on the adults around him. (Aries, 1962)

The word child was identified in the Fruretiere’s dictionary at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The word was used to identify a friend or greet someone (Aries, 1962). With this defenition came the denotation of the existence of the child itself. It seems that the written word validated the being it was assigned to-- child.

A boy was left to die…he now has shelter and a title…he has hope…

The purpose of education should be to fit the child for life.

George Mangold, Ph.D., 1910

A four-year old child boards a train, alone and not sure where she was going. She wears a smile as she reaches for the bottom step because one of the older children told her that there would be parents lining the railroad tracks waiting for children to come along. Children that they will take home and care for as their own.

Tuberculosis took her parents from her a year ago. The memory of her mother’s face has faded, but the doll her father gave her has never left her side. With her doll pressed to her chest she feels the jolt of the Orphan Train as it pulls out of New York to go west to find the parents.

1900 was a time of social reform for children. The existence of children in streets and orphanages was a constant reminder of their immediate needs. The 1909 White House conference was a potent manifestation of what the well-respected juvenile judge called “ the gospel of child saving” (Ashby, 1997). This began what was called the Progressive-Era child saving. This era was lead by a female-based activist group that fought for the rights of women, the poor, and children. As the political arena focused on caring for the masses of children living in poverty and abandon in the United States, a little girl is riding the Orphan Train, living in a time that was better than children before her. She holds on to her doll and hoped for some parents. Parents she pictures waiting by the side of the railroad tracks.

Educators of the time knew that schooling would be a prime factor in the advancement of youth and that play was an integral part of a child’s development. However, in so many cases survival overshadowed the opportunity for education.

Night falls on a doll and a little girl…they dream of tomorrow and a chance at a childhood.

Babies don’t talk one week, tie their shoes the next, and then work on their emotional development.

Ron Kotulak, 1998

On a hot August day in 1962 a child was born. She is the forth child born to a homemaker and a shoe salesman. As they hold their daughter their personal dreams are playing in their minds. The father’s dream focused on the reality of a “real family”. As a child he had been orphaned and had always dreamed of having a family of his own. The dream the baby daughter inspired for her mother was a chance to undo what her parents had done to her. Raised by alcoholic parents, she longed for a family that would never let her down. The gentle cries the baby made did not interfere with the dreams in progress. They thought on…they would teach her to read, to fear God, and to succeed.

By this time in history Piaget had identified that children think using experimental methods, Vygotsky identified the realities of social constructivism, Montessori established grounds for the need for early learning opportunities and Gerber sited the need for nurturance and love in the early years. There were however, still questions about children. The questions had shifted from how to protect the needy masses of the previous century, to how to get ahead as a county and how to include children in this process. It was determined that schools would lead the way; at five the road to education and social responsibility would begin for American children.

Conclusion

Throughout recorded history the view of children and childhood has been paradoxical in nature. This paradox has been found through works of art, diaries, and stories. The history of childhood has been uncovered by people like Philippe Aries and Lloyd deMause. Their findings indicate that adults have consistently held two (or more) contradictory views of children. This can been seen as far back as Plato’s time. Plato stated that children are to be cared for by the adults in the community. At the time of that statement the children of Greece were being enslaved, tortured, and molested by the adults of the communities. In current times Hillary Clinton wrote about the need for all citizens to participate in the raising of children in the U.S. In her writing she sited an African concept of an entire village raising a child. While the book was read by many adults children were left in child care situations that had long been determined to be detrimental to children in the U.S.

As long as there have been children there has been debate about their position in society, their worth to the community and the treatment they are worthy of. A debate about their childhood.

Bibliography

Ashby, L. (1997). Endangered Children: Dependency, Neglect, and Abuse in American History. New York: Prentice Hall.