title: Concepts of childhood: what we know and where we might go.
abstract: The publication of some forty years ago of the landmark work by Philippe Aries, entitled Centuries of childhood, in its widely-read English translation, unleashed decades of scholarly investigation of that once-neglected target, the child. Since then, historians have uncovered the traces of attitudes toward children- were they neglected, exploited, abused, cherished?- and patterns of child-rearing. They have explored such issues, among others, as the varieties of European household structure; definitions of the stages of life; childbirth, wetnursing, and the role of the midwife; child abandonment and the foundling home; infanticide and its prosecution; apprenticeship, servitude, and fostering; the evolution of schooling; the consequences of religious diversification; and the impact of gender. This essay seeks to identify key features and recent trends amid this abundance of learned inquiry.
authors.affiliation: Brooklyn College.
authors.forename: Margaret L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: King
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000884:Anthropology, Cultural / Q000266:history / Q000379:methods; D001942:Breast Feeding; D002648:Child; D002668:Child Rearing / Q000266:history; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004493:Education / Q000266:history; D005260:Female; D006663:Historiography; D049668:History, 15th Century; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049691:History, Medieval; D006803:Human Development; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007237:Infanticide / Q000266:history; D008880:Midwifery / Q000266:history; D019372:Orphanages / Q000266:history; D036801:Parturition; D011247:Pregnancy