How do children construct, negotiate and organize space? The study of social space in any human group is fraught with limitations, and to these we must add the further limits involved in the study of childhood. Here specialists from archaeology, history, literature, architecture, didactics, museology and anthropology build a body of theoretical and methodological approaches about how space is articulated and organised around children and how this disposition affects the creation and maintenance of social identities. Children are considered as the main actors in historic dynamics of social change, from prehistory to the present day. Notions on space, childhood and the construction of both the individual and the group identity of children are considered as a prelude to papers that focus on analysing and identifying the spaces which contribute to the construction of children's identity during their lives: the places they live, learn, socialize and play. A final section deals with these same aspects, but focuses on funerary contexts, in which children may lose their capacity to influence events, as it is adults who establish burial strategies and practices. In each case authors ask questions such as: how do adults construct spaces for children? How do children manage their own spaces? How do people (adults and children) build (invisible and/or physical) boundaries and spaces?

About the Author
Margarita Sanchez Romero is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology at the University of Granada, Spain. Her main research area is archaeology of women and gender relations focusing her analysis on the study of the body, material culture and maintenance activities, and the archaeology of children and childhood, taking into account process of learning and socialization. Eva Alarcon Garcia is scientific coordinator of a project at the University of Granada, Spain. She has previously worked as a researcher on a number of other projects at the university, and has also published a number of papers and books. Gonzalo Aranda Jimenez is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology at the University of Granada, Spain. His research interests are related to the emergence, development and collapse of complex societies in Late Prehistory of the southern Iberian Peninsula, focusing on topics such as the construction of social identities, the ritual practices of food and drink consumption, the social organization of pottery production, and the appearance of interpersonal conflicts that involve the use of violence.

Reviews
...this monograph is good value with 25 well-crafted chapters [...] there is much that can be learned from the attitudes and approaches presented here. * Medieval Archaeology *



Book Information
ISBN 9781782979357
Author Margarita Sanchez Romero
Format Paperback
Page Count 384
Imprint Oxbow Books
Publisher Oxbow Books