[Anthropgrad] Friday seminar, 5th October

[Nelia Hyndman-Rizik]

Hi all,

 

We have a pre-fieldwork seminar this Friday, the 5th of October in the
Milgate Room, AD Hope at 3pm.

The presenter for this week will be Zazie Bowen and her seminar is entitled:
"Mayurbhanj Childhoods".

 

Abstract:

 

Contemporary approaches in the anthropology of childhood reveal a move from
conceptualising children as 'human becomings' to 'human beings.'  The
'becoming' approach was primarily concerned with how culture moulds the
child's personal and cognitive development and the concept of
'socialisation' has been its principal concern.  This work is epitomised by
the classic work of Margaret Mead in her 'Growing up' in Samoa.  Modified
versions of this approach still exist today but a new approach is emerging
that stresses the agency of children in creating their own culture and
transforming the culture of the wider society.  This has lead to a concern
with both understanding the nature of children's agency and how social
structures and social constructions of childhood impact on and constrain
children. 

 

The theoretical implications of this shift to accepting children as
competent human beings are potentially similar to the contributions of
feminist theories and gender perspectives. They involve identifying and a
critique of adult-centric assumptions and preparedness to both incorporate
children's previously muted perspectives and allow those perspectives to
transform contemporary modes of thought.  The current paradigm of childhood
studies seeks to set children's perspectives alongside an analysis of the
constraints of the social structures that childhood and children are
embedded within.  The leading exponents of this approach include Allison
James and Alan Prout (U.K.), Jens Qvortrup (Netherlands), Judith Ennew
(Thailand) and Deepak Behera (India). 

 

I propose to develop the 'human being' approach to children's culture by
examining how children of various socio-economic classes and castes in a
rural Orissan village experience their lives and participate in processes of
social transformation. My hypothesis is that children, who are
simultaneously vulnerable due to biological immaturity, developing and
agents have experiences, perspectives and motivations that are distinctive
and intrinsically relevant not only to themselves and their
conceptualisations of well being but to an analysis of the dynamics of
social transformations. Children however, are not an indistinguishable
category. Therefore I propose to test my hypothesis by comparing and
contrasting the experiences, perspectives and motivations of some children
of various ages between 5 to 12 years and from both genders from Brahmin,
Santal and so-called peasant and low caste families in a [multi-caste] rural
village in northern Orissa. I will also contrast these with the experiences
perspectives and motivations of several adults.

 

Hope to see you there,

 

Yours truly,

 

Nelia Hyndman-Rizik

PhD Candidate

School of Archaeology and Anthropology

The Australian National University

mailto:nelia.hyndman- <mailto:nelia.hyndman-rizik at anu.edu.au>  rizik
@anu.edu.au

mailto:nelia.n at bigpond.com

Mobile: 0437 600 157

 

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