Life Cycle & Social Change Nicola (Nicky) Graves

The life cycle is not merely a matter of biological imperatives but is shaped and given meaning by social, cultural and economic factors.

Childhood was previously attached to theories of socialisation and development psychology and this led to children and childhood being considered a natural rather than social phenomenon (Jenks 1996) It appears there are two competing ways of viewing childhood: * * An unchanging, universal social order Socially constructed and variable.

Childhood is seen as universal, incapable of being defined and fleeting. It resists description and becomes apparent only by its absence. Without the image of the unhappy child, our contemporary concept of childhood would be incomplete (Holland, Patricia 2006: 148). She suggests that images of abused and famine-stricken children for example, solidify the adult notion of childhood as characteristically being a weak, helpless and dependant state. In this essay a cross-cultural comparison from infancy to adolescence is given to illustrate the shaping and meaning given to childhood by social, cultural and economic factors in the Alto of Brazil where it appears that no shape or meaning is given, only an emphasis on the infants survival: the Masai of Africa who shape young boys and girls to their gender roles and mark this by physically and symbolically marking the rites of passage to adulthood thereby giving meaning to the life cycle; and Liberian refugees. Social factors Society is a membership of individuals who share a system of classification, and childhood must consist of acquiring knowledge of these classifications to become a member. The ultimate aim of members is to become an adult an independent variable all children must aspire too. Childhood goes through stages of development and if they are successful they become adults. Enculturation can then be reached and challenged. In the West childhood is constructed by parents and governments socially and psychologically (micro approach) and the macro approach - structure and agency (Giddens, 1984). Structural categories including social, class, age and gender affect the nature of childhood. To symbolise childhood through ideas of naturalness and vulnerable dependence (Hockey & James, 1993) and foster it through innocence and often ignorance, creates an ideology that

cannot always be produced in developing countries or the West. Outside influences including culture and economic factors affect a child journeys through the life cycle. In some societies childhood is not recognised or upheld and the child takes on adult social responsibilities from an early age due to family numbers or division of labour. Children become social actors and can appear to omit childhood from their individual life cycle due to their contribution to the family income, agriculture, slavery, sex work and migration. What happens to these children when a global policy of banning child labour is enforced? Independent children become dependent on structures and institutions. Government, charities and voluntary agencies run campaigns stating cruelty to children must stop (NSPCC), UNICEF declares right now, the worst humanitarian crisis of the last 50 years is happening in East Africa. Children across the region are facing a desperate crisis caused by drought, high food prices and ongoing conflict in Somalia. 6.7 million children need urgent help, over 320,000 of who are severely malnourished and need immediate life-saving assistance. Just 5 will help UNICEF feed a child for a week. With the right treatment, a child can recover in six weeks. My intention here is not to condemn or disagree with these organisations and without their help and support many more thousands of children will suffer and die, but these organisation and governments fail to indicate how and if these childrens lives consist of a childhood in crisis. Why do we never hear a childs voice in all this immediate life-saving assistance that occurs for just 5 per month? What happens if the 5 per month is paid and a child dies, do we then assume the child has made an adult decision as a social actor to die? Implementing policies, laws and plans of action to societies affect many children first. Breastfeeding programmes, height and weight charts, vaccinations, divorcing your parents, who you marry and at what age, continually change the habitus of generations and alters the discourses of the child that are envisioned for children through what is known as the social institution of childhood. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children state cruelty to children must stop, UNICEF and Save the Children together with other global charities and organisations run campaigns to raise monies and awareness to end suffering for children in developing countries: famine, child mortality and abuse of children goes on and more than quick fixes are needed. Money alone cannot give a child their childhood. Conception to Birth - Social Shaping and Meaning From conception, social, economic and cultural forces shape the foetus future as a child: if she/he survives birth. The neonate is to become enmeshed in a net of expectations and entrance into the life cycle is of great concern to society. The infant will become an actor with agency through social processes, for example identity and maintain culturally specific ideologies through generative schema and habitus (Bourdieu 1977). Childhood may well be universal but its construction, roles and rules are culturally constructed and dependant not only on cultural values and beliefs, but also on social and economic factors.

A case study from the shanty town of Alto do Cruzeira, Brazil Childhood in the shanty town of Alto do Cruzeira of Brazil is not a considered factor and cultural indifference occurs towards a neonate until she/he has survived early infancy and begins to walk and talk. Approximately one million children die under five years of age each year from chronic malnutrition interacting with parasitic infections and infectious disease (Scheper-Hughes, 1985:292). The culture a child grows within in the hills of Alto do Cruziera is one of scarcity, both material and psychological: child death, violence, disease, lack of sanitation, contaminated water, food shortage, crowded living conditions, no electricity and a home built from tin are markers of poverty. Passive, less demanding children and infants who show types of chronic hunger symptoms including passiveness, quietness and are less demanding, receive negative feedback from the mother through her withdrawal and rejection of care and attention. As a child your habitus will be to have a great constitution and temperament in readiness for the uphill struggle for life. Male dominance is reinforced through sons who are valued and are encouraged to become independent from an early age, and are enjoyed for their skills in street games and sports. The culture in this shanty town is one of continual violence and crime that is associated with poverty, unemployment, lack of health resources and class stratification. A son may be sent out to forage in the markets and grow up to feel no shame when begging or stealing. Young female children are considered useful for undertaking domestic tasks in the home and becoming a lifelong intimate and friend to the mother. (Scheper-Hughes, 1985) The social meaning of childhood in the Alto is structured to the hierarchal social order in which strength, force and power are synonymous to survival. Children remain without a name and christening until they begin to walk and talk, or die. A child with epilepsy or autism and developmental disabilities is considered weak and powerless, therefore care, food, love and attention is withheld. When death occurs, children form the funeral procession. Selective neglect of children must be understood as a direct consequence of the selective neglect of their mothers who have been excluded from participating in what was once called the Economic Miracle of Modern Brazil. (Scheper-Hughes 1985: 314)

Infancy to Adolescence in Kaijado, Kenya Comparing De Vries (1987) ethnographic study of the Masai people of Kajiado, Kenya, with the infant Alto child allows us to consider the cultural factors of childhood and passage into adulthood, which is recognised and not just an ideology for the Masai.

Rearing children takes place among large polygamous kin networks and in isolated monogamous nuclear families. Caretaker attention for the child is dependent on work requirements, daily routines, social roles, personal qualities, needs and attitudes. From birth the individuals passage through the life cycle is a paramount concern for the tribe, who control the learning development and shaping of the child. Boys enjoy a childhood of play, with the exception of ritual beatings that test and instill courage and endurance. Boys between twelve and twenty five, who have reached puberty, will be initiated into the fifteen year cycle of a new and named generation of warriors. Part of the initiation for this rite of passage to junior warrior involves circumcision (emorata). Male ethos is that of a warrior whose strength lies in his strength and temperament which is enculturated into young boy children. This warrior status causes conflict on adolescents today who are torn between education within the school environment or living freely on the Rift Valley Plateau (de Vries, 1987). Childhood is symbolic in dress where male and female children dress alike until around four to six years old when formal naming allows them to assume the dress of their sex. Girls are responsible for chores that include cooking and milking and these skills which are taught by mothers at an early age. The young girls are also circumcised as part of their rite of passage when they come of age and are classified as women ready for marrying. Male children are highly valued and childhood is filled with attentive catering to their needs by the mother. However the cultural norm is to instil independence in the future warrior by leaving him by himself or with friends in the homestead daily. The Masai admire a warriors aggression and assertiveness and these traits are encouraged in a young boy. Naming children, especially boys, is complex and during the life cycle they may acquire five or more different names that refer to relationships and life stages. Naming gives an infant status as a person and the first name is given not long after birth. The second name is given when he can run (about four to six years of age) and future names will be earned through deeds carried out as a warrior. The domestic life and patterns of childhood social processes differs greatly among the Masai and Alto Brazilians in a domestic sense: the Masai childs father may have two or three wives and children born of these marriages all live in the same household. When a childs mother dies, another wife will take over her role and childhood progresses normally. Staying in Africa I would like to mention the Liberian refugees in Ghana studied by Dr Kate Hampshire (et al) 2008. Children are said to be remarkably resilient, but what happens to their childhood when it is displaced by conflict and migration? A growing literature finds that young people affected by war and displacement can act positively as agents in overcoming adversity (Hampshire et al 2008: 25). A group of the refugees at Buduburam camp are young former child soldiers and arrived at the camp without parents or family. Drug use, gambling and prostitution among the young is
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tolerated by official agencies. Children and adolescents have no rights because they are not classed as Ghanaian citizens and there is a struggle for people to meet basic needs. Education and livelihood opportunities are limited which affects the economic and social factors and due to loss of family members through the conflict, children and young people have little external support. Transition from childhood to adulthood and cultural beliefs, behaviours and values has been drastically altered with the individuals displacement. Economic responsibilities associated with adulthood, fall heavily onto childhood children on the camp are forced to be men at a tender age, going for food, paying for school fees (Hampshire et al 2008: 30). Childhood in the camp is not defined by chronological age because of the inability to achieve full adult status due to social and economic factors;. People have no citizenship, they have no identity and cannot work legally. The cultural factors affecting childhood behaviour and membership of the youth groups are strongly influenced by becoming Westernised. They dress like Americans and play their black music and among young people aspire the cultural belief is to go migrate to America where a better life awaits. Children no longer have passages and initiations and inter-generational relations lead to conflict within the camp. Parents can no longer materially provide for their children and this impacts on their social authority. The structures and individual agency approach is most appropriate in my opinion for explaining the refugees social situation. A heavy focus on the lack of childhood appears to be on the parents inability to support their children materially and the internal habitus and generative schema is caught between the old world of life in Liberia and the new world of westernisation. Children are taught the skills for internet usage alongside livelihood opportunities as armed robbers and sex workers. Many of them undertake adult tasks to support themselves and their families and a widespread viewpoint within the camp is that these economic role reversals lead to breakdowns between generations and authority and respect is no longer part of childhood.

Conclusion From infancy to childhood is a structural process that is filled with customs, values, beliefs, language, classification, meaning, and rituals - all the concepts pertaining to structural functionalism. Each individual society is constructed according to cultural belief, economic factors and social status and the society and culture you are born into dictates if, how and when the actor has a childhood. To be born into poverty may take away, ignore and not recognise childhood as detailed in Brazil. A child can be a commodity for survival and the ideology is not of a dependant functioning young actor but a functioning young adult with the work labour needed for survival.

References:

Bourdieu, P. (1977) Outline of a theory or practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

De Vries, M.W. (1987) Cry Babies, Culture and Catastrophe: infant temperament among the Masai in Child Survival: anthropological perspectives on the treatment and maltreatment of children. Edited by Nancy Sheper-Hughes (1987) Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company

Giddens, A. (1984) The Constitution of Society. Cambridge: Polity Press

Hampshire, K. et al (2008) Liminal Spaces: Changing Inter-Generational Relations among Long-Term Liberian Refugees in Ghana. Human Organisation Vol 67 (1) 25-36

Hockey, J.L. (1993) Growing up and growing old: ageing and dependency in the life course. London: Sage

Holland, P. (2006) Picturing childhood: the myth of the child in popular imagery. London: J.B. Tauris & Co Ltd

Jenks, C. (1996) Childhood. Key ideas. London: Routledge

www.nspcc.org.uk/

Scheper-Hughes, N. (1985). Culture, Scarcity, and Maternal Thinking: Maternal Detachment and Infant Survival in a Brazilian Shantytown. Ethos. 13(4). 291-317

www.unicef.org.uk/