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This is a very interesting article that relates to this topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_childhood https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_child
by jrcii 11y ago
This is a very interesting article that relates to this topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_childhood https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_childhood
Remarkably, "During the 1600s, a shift in philosophical and social attitudes toward children and the notion of 'childhood' began in Europe." This seems to imply that the notion of childhood didn't even exist. Prior to this it explains that, "Children were often temporarily sent off as servants to relatives in need of help."
I know in my own family, my great-grandfather's many sisters and brothers (13 in total) had tremendous work responsibilities as children. We appear to have gone from one extreme to the other.
- david-given 11y agoDon't forget that a couple of hundred years later, the teenager was invented. Prior to that, then pretty much at puberty you were deemed to be an adult, and you'd go off to work/marriage/both. (But it's important to remember that puberty now is way earlier than it was then, mostly due to better health and diet, IIRC.) I do find myself wondering what the next social step will be, as social maturity diverges even further from physical maturity...
- e40 11y agoMy understanding is that puberty is earlier due to additives in food. Tofu, for example, has compounds that mimic female hormones. Compounds in soft plastics are thought to disrupt the hormones of young children, too.
- snowwrestler 11y agoThis is an unproven and somewhat controversial hypothesis.
- fishtoaster 11y agoThat's an interesting theory- I don't think I've heard anyone claim that before. Do you have any sources off-hand? It kinda sounds pseudosciency, but I haven't looked into it at all.
- biot 11y agoThe relationships (tofu, plastics) are often fairly weak, but measurable: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphenol_A#Health_effects https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphenol_A#Health_effects https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytoestrogens#Effects_on_Humans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytoestrogens#Effects_on_Huma...
- stvswn 11y agoAs long as we're throwing out unproven but provocative theories along these lines -- I think I read something about how residual compounds from birth control passes through to urine and then into our water supply in trace amounts, triggering hormonal changes that lead to earlier puberty. I like that one, it has a lot of things going for it: tainted water supply, culpability of drug companies, punishment for our hubris in thinking we could control reproduction, etc.
- pavel_lishin 11y agoDon't forget that it would probably be a stronger effect in more populated areas, so on the surface you'd expect it to hit inner cities more.
- tn13 11y agoAlso life span was much shorter, productive years of life were much lesser and there was little incentive to spend time in things such as "learning". It made sense to prepare children of life's hard work right from the beginning. Just the way we currently burden little ones with learning alphabets, basic numbers and memorizing math tables. We don't see these things as burden today but may be 100 years later when human beings will have to work very little to achieve a lot some of the people would look back at future and say our ancestors forced their little Children to learn thing like math tables only to make them slaves at some corporate office.
- bonoboTP 11y agoWell, that's kind of starting to happen with higher education going into the twenties and independent family life only beginning in people's thirties, sometimes even late thirties. In rich countries there is this new phase of partying, travelling, "finding yourself", living freely without much responsibility, still depending on parents for certain things etc.
- jeremyjh 11y agoIt is not new amongst the wealthy.
- bonoboTP 11y agoIt's getting more widespread though. But I'm from Central Europe, not the US. Nowadays the prestige of university/college is becoming similar to the prestige of secondary school some decades ago, i.e. it's almost a default requirement for an intellectual (non-physical) job. But while secondary school was finished at the age of about 18, university/college adds another ~5 years to that. Also marketing and the general zeitgeist makes people stay like children. I mean, I know people who just kind of drift along with time, beyond the age of 30 and they still feel a bit weird when thinking about themselves as adults.
- brandonmenc 11y ago> I do find myself wondering what the next social step will be We're already in its midst - currently, we're calling it "extended adolescence", and it encompasses ages 18-25ish.