Child's play: Reflections on the invisibility of children in the paleolithic record Export

@article{citeulike:1036725, abstract = {Were there children in Early Paleolithic times? At first glance, this seems a stupid question. We are obviously descended from Paleolithic ancestors. Yet, in archeological models of Paleolithic stone tool variability and assemblage formation processes, children might as well be invisible. There have been some efforts to identify byproducts of children's activities in a few Late Paleolithic contexts, but their possible role in broader patterns of Paleolithic industrial variability remains largely unexplored. In this paper I argue that the reason we know so little about children's knapping behavior in prehistory is not that this behavior was genuinely absent, but rather that we have not looked hard enough or in the right way at the lithic record. This is a pity, because of all the behaviors we archeologists attempt to reconstruct in our research, child-rearing must certainly number among those with the most immediate and important evolutionary consequences.}, address = {Anthropology Dept., Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794}, author = {Shea, John J.}, citeulike-article-id = {1036725}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/evan.20112}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/114030501/ABSTRACT}, doi = {10.1002/evan.20112}, journal = {Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews}, keywords = {archaeology, assemblage, excavation, juvenile, knapping, tool}, number = {6}, pages = {212--216}, posted-at = {2007-02-01 05:53:20}, priority = {0}, title = {Child's play: Reflections on the invisibility of children in the paleolithic record}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/evan.20112}, volume = {15}, year = {2006} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:1036725 L3 - citeulike-article-id:1036725 N2 - Were there children in Early Paleolithic times? At first glance, this seems a stupid question. We are obviously descended from Paleolithic ancestors. Yet, in archeological models of Paleolithic stone tool variability and assemblage formation processes, children might as well be invisible. There have been some efforts to identify byproducts of children's activities in a few Late Paleolithic contexts, but their possible role in broader patterns of Paleolithic industrial variability remains largely unexplored. In this paper I argue that the reason we know so little about children's knapping behavior in prehistory is not that this behavior was genuinely absent, but rather that we have not looked hard enough or in the right way at the lithic record. This is a pity, because of all the behaviors we archeologists attempt to reconstruct in our research, child-rearing must certainly number among those with the most immediate and important evolutionary consequences. IS - 6 JF - Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews AD - Anthropology Dept., Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794 EP - 216 TI - Child's play: Reflections on the invisibility of children in the paleolithic record VL - 15 SP - 212 KW - archaeology KW - assemblage KW - excavation KW - juvenile KW - knapping KW - tool AU - Shea, John PY - 2006/// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/evan.20112 ER -