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5000 BCE
Anitiquity, Hunting and Gathering societies (10000-4000 BCE)
In this stage of History, children were not the most important aspect of these early societies, Actually, the birth rates were limited, due to prolonged periods of breastfeeding and also due to the difficulties of carrying a kid in the hunting activities and the various travels through diverse regions, that were common in the age. Nevertheless, the evidence suggests that kids (Both boys and girls) were allowed to participate in some activities within the group, and gender inequality was limited. -
4000 BCE
Agriculture societies
"More food meant the possibility of more
extensive population growth and, for individual families, greater opportunity
for sexual activity and a higher birth rate" (Stearns, P). For this reason, the birth rates rapidly increased, the structures of families in the agriculture societies consisted of 6 to 8 kids (Due to the high infant mortality). The interest of the families in having many kids were varied. The aristocracy for political unions, agricultural and artisanal for the labor force. -
Period: 1000 BCE to 301
Big antique socities (Greeks, Romans, etc)
During this period of time kids were completely used by adults in all kind of labors, including working in the country-yard, serving wealthy families, being abused with violence and sexual harassment, and constantly mortified with scary histories to make them obedient. -
610 BCE
Child Sale
Back in Babylon, trading kids were actually really common among the cities and were even legal. Also, another abandonment practice was the use of children as political hostages and security for debts, which was really common in ancient civilizations. -
500 BCE
Sexual harrassment
In antique societies like Roman and Greek, adults tended to project their sexual aberrations and desires on the little ones, making them vulnerable to all kind of abuses. This was common in high spheres of the societies and they even created these places where they could go to sexual abuse of children. -
300 BCE
Infanticidal mode (Antiquity-400 A.C)
Parents and even some empires and governments ( Irish Celts, the Gauls, the Scandinavians, the Egyptians, the Phoenicians, the Moabites, the Ammonites, Greeks, Romans) resolved their anxieties and fears taking care of the kids by killing them. Age of sodomizing kids in all the spheres of life. -
374
Law against murdering kids
It was not until the 4th century that the Romans started to change their perspective about infant killing. Nevertheless, This law was created in order to force parents to take better care of their children, due to Emperator intentions to increase the Roman population, no in order to serve kids rights. -
Period: 400 to 1200
Abandoning period, Middle Age
The parents and society began to accept that children had a soul and the change their attitude of killing them by abandonment, whether to the wet nurse, to the monastery or to the homes of nobles as servants or hostages or by severe emotional abandonment at home. -
787
Council of Vaison-Asylum for abandont infants
In the year of 442 with the small development of children rights in the Council of Vaison, the authorities agreed that all abandoned children findings should be announced in the church, but it was not until more than 300 years later that the first asylum for abandoned kids was founded. -
1140
Punishment methods
It is well known that through this period of time, the child was perceived as a rebel human who needed severe correction a punishment for its acts. These punishments were not limited to the family circle, yet it was extended even to the schools were teacher use to practica a beating method known as "Horsing" -
Period: 1300 to
Ambivalent mode
"The beginning of the period is approximately the fourteenth century, which shows an increase in the number of child instruction manuals, the expansion of the cults of Mary and the infant Jesus, and the proliferation of the “close-mother image.” (Demause, Ll, 1973) -
1405
Innocence of childhood
Giovanni Dominici, writing in 1405, tried to set some limits to the convenient “innocence” of childhood; he said children after the age of three years shouldn’t be allowed to see nude adults. -
1500
Infant swaddling
A universal practice through 14th to the 16th century was to use restraint devices to control little kids. Tying up children was meant to avoid them the freedom to run and to avoid some "suffering" for the adults by keeping the kids away and still while they could concentrate in other activities -
Period: to
Intrusive Mode
Parents began to control children from a different perspective than physical punishment, at this stage of the story, parents strongly interfere in the development of the infant, from a positive perspective, more care is taken of the child, but much more control of the child. his behavior, prohibitions, and punishments for disobedience. -
Early children education
Jhon Locke fought against the idea of original sin, arguing that children were“blank slates”, open to improvement and enlightenment through education. That this task was the duty of the parents, that needed to understand the forms and characteristics of their kids in order to fully develop. By the later 19th century, guided by Enlightenment gurus such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
this blank slate approach had morphed into a positive statement of children’s basic goodness and innocence. -
Redifinig child innocence
Jean-Jacques Rousseau statement was that children were not evil since birth, but instead that they only could become corrupted through an experience of the world. Therefore they should not be longer considered as little demons that needed to be hardly shaped -
Industrial children
The beginning of the industrial revolution came with big needs... WORKFORCE, and then, of course, the children were a relatively accessible a cheap workforce -
Period: to
Socializing mode
"The raising of a child became less a process of conquering its will than of training it, guiding it into proper paths, teaching it to conform, socializing it." (Demause, Ll, 1973) In this stage the fathers began to be more involved in the development of the child, even sharing spaces that were historical assumed only by the mother. -
Legislation about child labor
Initial legislation limiting child labor emerged. The consciousness of the need of kids education began to gain importance within the developed societies of Western Europe and the USA -
Children's charter
It was the first Act of Parliament for the prevention of cruelty to children. It was the first time when the state had the opportunity to intervene in favor of children regarding their relations with adults (Parents, etc). Police could arrest anyone found ill-treating a child, and enter a home if a child was thought to be in danger. -
United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund
This fund was created in order to provide humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and mothers in emergent countries. -
Period: to
Helping mode
It changes the parenting paradigm to dominate or control attitudes of infants, towards support in the integral development with both parents involved, allowing freedom and requiring large amounts of time and energy that must be invested with children to accompany their growth. -
Children's Rights
Declaration of the children's rights by the ONU -
Convention on the rights of the child
The Convention changed the way children are viewed and treated – as human beings with a distinct set of rights instead of as passive objects of care and charity. This convention was adopted worldwide from 1989. -
Current day
The concept of childhood has been dynamic through all the eras of humankind. Children have been abused in a lot of different ways, but thanks to the development of Child's Rights and international leaders and thinkers, children now have the opportunity to develop in an integral way, allowing them to freely enjoy this time, that now we all perceived as one the most important moments in life, a time to experience the world, to make mistakes, to laugh, learn, play without worrying.
