The first time that we, the editors of this volume, met, a chance remark by one of us, newly returned from fieldwork in Fiji, quickly led to an animated discussion of our experiences doing anthropological research with children. Following that occasion, we began to seek each other out in order to continue such conversations, because we had found no other opportunity to discuss these significant events. We knew our experiences were rich sources of cross-cultural data and stimuli to rethinking anthro pological theory and methods. A cursory review of the literature on fieldwork revealed, to our surprise, that fieldworker's experiences with children were rarely and only briefly mentioned (Hostetler and Huntington, 1970, are an early exception). In order to learn more about research that included the ethnographers' children, we organized a conference on the topic at Michigan State University on May 1, 1982. This volume includes papers from that conference, as well as insights and ideas from the formal and informal discussions among the conference participants and audience. This volume, like the conference which preceded it, is intended to be the effects of accompanying children on anthropological an exploration of field research and on the effects of fieldwork on the children themselves. Additionally, we see this book as part of an anthropological inquiry into research as a cultural process, by which is meant the effects of the researchers' cultural identity--class, gender, age, ethnicity, and other characteristics--on fieldwork.

The authors of this book share a common assumption about anthropology--that replicable and systematic procedures of data collection and analysis are essential requirements for building useful cultural theory. They view cultural theory as both an aid to understanding sociocultural phenomena, and as an aid in changing existing social conditions. This book focuses on five specific themes representing a set of principles for conducting research: the importance of intra-cultural variation; the blending of qualitative and quantitative approaches; the search for micro/macro levels of generalization; the innovative matching of methodology to research problems; and the practical or applied merit of systematically generated and evaluated theory. It contributes to scientific anthropology and shows that the credibility and utility of anthropological research in policy matters is enhanced by scientific research methodology.

Based on ethnographic research and inventive, child-oriented research methods, the current volume offers children’s perspectives on kinship, children's experiences of work, caring, disease, migration, conflict, and many other key features of contemporary life in Africa.

This volume presents research in the field of first language acquisition discussed at the 1993 meeting of the Child Language Research Forum. The contributors are Maria A. Alegre, Ursula Bellugi, Jeffrey G. Bettger, Paul Bloom, Melissa Bowerman, Ursula Brinkmann, Penelope Brown, Nancy Budwig, Joan Bybee, Alice Shuk-yee Cheung, Soonja Choi, Patricia Clancy, Stephen Crain, William Croft, Cynthia Crosser, Peter Culicover, Eve Danziger, Sonja Eisenbeiss, Karen Emmorey, Susan Ervin-Tripp, Claire Foley, Dicky G. Gilbers, Adele E. Goldberg, Alison Gopnik, Peter Gordon, Susan A. Graham, Jiansheng Guo, D. Geoffrey Hall, Alison Henry, James H. Hoeffner, Qian Hu, Tara Jackson, Catalina Johnson, Shyam Kapur, Bonita P. Klein, Edward S. Klima, Amy Kyratzis, Marie Labelle, Barbara Landau, Thomas Hun-tak Lee, Barbara Lust, Rachel I. Mayberry, James L. McClelland, Zelmira Nez del Prado, Dominique Nouveau, Diane Poulin-Dubois, Lisa Riche, Nancy Soja, Susan Toth-Sadjadi, Andrew Chung-yee Tse, and Klarien J. van der Linde. Eve V. Clark is Professor of Linguistics at Stanford University, author of The Lexicon in Acquisition, and co-author of Psychology and Language (with Herbert H. Clark).

While the notion of young people as individuals worthy or capable of having rights is of relatively recent origin, over the past several decades there has been a substantial increase in both social and political commitment to children’s rights as well as a tendency to grant young people some of the rights that were typically accorded only to adults. In addition, there has been a noticeable shift in orientation from a focus on children’s protection and provision to an emphasis on children’s participation and self-determination. With contributions from a wide range of international scholars, the Handbook of Children’s Rights brings together research, theory, and practice from diverse perspectives on children’s rights. This volume constitutes a comprehensive treatment of critical perspectives concerning children’s rights in their various forms. Its contributions address some of the major scholarly tensions and policy debates comprising the current discourse on children’s rights, including the best interests of the child, evolving capacities of the child, states’ rights versus children’s rights, rights of children versus parental or family rights, children as citizens, children’s rights versus children’s responsibilities, and balancing protection and participation. In addition to its multidisciplinary focus, the handbook includes perspectives from social science domains in which children’s rights scholarship has evolved largely independently due to distinct and seemingly competing assumptions and disciplinary approaches (e.g., childhood studies, developmental psychology, sociology of childhood, anthropology, and political science). The handbook also brings together diverse methodological approaches to the study of children’s rights, including both quantitative and qualitative perspectives, and policy analysis. This comprehensive, cosmopolitan, and timely volume serves as an important reference for both scholarly and policy-driven interest in the voices and perspectives of children and youth.

The study of childhood in academia has been dominated by a mono-cultural or WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic) perspective. Within the field of anthropology, however, a contrasting and more varied view is emerging. While the phenomenon of children as workers is ephemeral in WEIRD society and in the literature on child development, there is ample cross-cultural and historical evidence of children making vital contributions to the family economy. Children’s “labor” is of great interest to researchers, but widely treated as extra-cultural—an aberration that must be controlled. Work as a central component in children’s lives, development, and identity goes unappreciated. Anthropological Perspectives on Children as Helpers, Workers, Artisans, and Laborers aims to rectify that omission by surveying and synthesizing a robust corpus of material, with particular emphasis on two prominent themes: the processes involved in learning to work and the interaction between ontogeny and children’s roles as workers.

Doing research with young children can be challenging for many reasons, but this book provides clear guidance on how to engage in appropriate methods. Focusing on researching through play, careful consideration is given to: · the founding principles of playful research · understanding young children’s perspectives · prioritising the rights of the child and the voice of the child · examples of innovative research methods Real life examples and research projects are presented, to enable common challenges to be anticipated and to showcase successful creative approaches, and to inspire new paths in research.