Jamal J. Elias
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780520290075
- eISBN:
- 9780520964402
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520290075.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This chapter focuses on the construction of childhood as the adult defined, historically and culturally constructed state of being a child, as distinct from the experiences, biology, and psychology ...
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This chapter focuses on the construction of childhood as the adult defined, historically and culturally constructed state of being a child, as distinct from the experiences, biology, and psychology of children. It explores the emergence of the modern concept of idealized childhood and juxtaposes it to anti-childhood, which is an equally idealized concept of a child in absolute want. Aylan Kurdi, the Syrian boy whose drowned body washed up on a Turkish beach and became a viral image, serves as a case study for the dichotomy between idealized childhood and anti-childhood. The social implications of notions of childhood are explored with reference to social debates over child soldiers and the legal age for marriage.Less
This chapter focuses on the construction of childhood as the adult defined, historically and culturally constructed state of being a child, as distinct from the experiences, biology, and psychology of children. It explores the emergence of the modern concept of idealized childhood and juxtaposes it to anti-childhood, which is an equally idealized concept of a child in absolute want. Aylan Kurdi, the Syrian boy whose drowned body washed up on a Turkish beach and became a viral image, serves as a case study for the dichotomy between idealized childhood and anti-childhood. The social implications of notions of childhood are explored with reference to social debates over child soldiers and the legal age for marriage.
