Children’s ethnobiological knowledge: an introduction

Abstract

By the turn of the 21st century, several anthropologists have insistently been denouncing a global disinterest for anthropology of child (see for instance Corsaro 2003; Friedl 2004; Gottlieb 2000; Hirschfeld 2002; Panther-Brick & Smith 2000). Since then, and especially over the past decade, anthropological research pertaining to children and childhood has made significant progress (Lancy 2008, 2012; Lancy et al. 2010; Montgomery 2009; Qvortrup et al. 2011). Anthropology of child is even becoming a trendy domain of research that is now investigated by a growing number of disciplines, including archaeology1. The birth of AnthropoChildren journal in 2012 is one of the most salient expressions of this renewed interest, pursuing the work of many pioneer scholars – Langness 1975 and Whiting 1963 to name a few – who, following the pathway opened by M. Mead (1930), have prominently contributed to set up the foundations of this multilayered discipline. Nevertheless, research efforts are not equally conducted between developed and developing countries and studies dedicated to children among the most nature-dependent peoples have for long remained marginal. Earliest concerns about hunter-gatherer children have principally focused on childrearing and socialization practices (Jelliffe et al. 1962; Draper 1976; Guemple 1979; Konner 1976) until the outstanding works carried out by B. Hewlett in the 1990s and pursued with his collaborators (A.H. Boyette, S.J. Dira, C.L. Meehan, C. Roulette a