Archeological Studies: Why Do We Discount Children in the Archaeological Record?

Archaeological studies of the paleolithic record commonly neglect to mention the or study in depth the children of the culture/time period in question. It is important to study children, because they can tell us a lot about the culture they lived in and the adults of that era. Sometimes studying children is problematic because of terminology and stuff, but there are a few things we know for sure. If we apply this reasoning to the study of neanderthals, we can learn more about the lives of neanderthals. We know some things about neanderthal kids, but by studying children we can also learn a lot about Neanderthal adults. A lot of the stuff we know about neanderthals comes from studying their children. If we focused more on children, we might know even more about neanderthals.

Why do we discount children in the archaeological record?
It is hard to study children because the bones of juveniles are very fragile and often do not last very long or in good form. they do not fossilize as easily as adult bones (H and D 89) (ruttle 69).

Another reason that we do not see talk of children in the archaeological record is that maybe archaeologists are not looking hard enough (Shea 212). It is not common practice to discuss the implications on children that any artefact might have. It is also not kosher to automatically assume that an artefact was used by a child rather than an adult, whereas most artefacts are assumed to be used by adults ( i think maybe ) without any evidence that this was true.

Just as we automatically give credit to adults over children, we also give credit to men over women and children. Until recently (dawn of gender studies?), women were but a side note in history and anthropology studies. (truth?) people did not thin...

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...ey will expand upon as adults.

children are a critical factor in the continuation of tradition and cultural themes (Ruttle 65).

child-rearing and family planning have some of the most immediate consequences on changes in culture and even evolution. (Shea 212)

As adults, we have trouble representing children because, having once been children ourselves, we claim authority on the topic even though we no longer live as children nor do we see the world through their eyes. Even though we were once children, we cannot assume that we inherently know what it is like to be a child (Wilkie 100).

Children have their own views of the world. they do not see it as adults do, and they do not see it as other children do. the world is, at this point, a product of their imagination and whatever information they draw in from the world using their senses. (wilkie 100)