Aries Criticism PDF

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Aries Criticism...

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Aries ➢ ➢ ➢ ➢ ➢ ➢ ★ ➢ ➢ ➢ ★

Criticism Sweeping generalisations. Naive/selective use of sources. Soft evidence - less emphasis upon written texts (mainly paintings). Evidence selectively picked to support argument - was evidence of children painted realistically. Does art directly reproduce life? (Eg. In Religious paintings, Jesus portrayed as older. Not true but reflects religious beliefs). Stylised function of Middle Ages paintings- they were more symbolic than realistic. ‘Previous society did not fail to think of children as different from adults; it merely thought about the difference in a different way from ours’ - Archard (2004). He had a present-centred view. Universalised the child- experiences throughout history classed and gendered. Painting he used often had a religious meaning. Eg. He used pictures of Jesus as a baby, but Jesus was son of God, maybe portrayed as born as a ‘man’?

Evidence ● Childhood ill-defined in terms of chronological age: - Recording of age began in 18th century. - Mortality rate for children was very high. - Children needed in the labour market (from age of 7). - Rise of the family-paintings in 17th century. - The depiction of the child in everyday settings. Psychogenic Theory ● Lloyd de Mause: American Psychologist who developed psychogenic theory. ● Psychogenic theory: Changes to human psyche over history. ● Emphasis upon the psychology /emotional origins of human behaviour. ● Emphasis upon child rearing. ● Child/parent relationships were motor of history, not economics or technological progress. ● Sociology traditionally leaves emotions out of motivation of social actors. ● Individuals are placed as rational. ● Culture placed as separate from psychology. ● Sees human emotions (Eg. Love) as motivators of cultural life. ● Psychologised history of childhood: Ways in which children were treated were central to understanding how they developed into adults. ● Child abuse is done by people who were abused as children to get them to process emotions. Psychohistory ● Unresolved anxieties from relationship with mothers. ● Can’t understand human history without understanding how adults play out anxieties. ● Maltreatment of children in history. ● Unconscious motives of adults. ● Sees journey from a barbaric past to a golden age-seven evolutionary stages. ● Evolution of human psyche attached to successive historical periods. ● Increased capacity of mothers to empathise with their children over time. ● Assumption that in early history parents lacked the emotional development to see children as ‘different’ or separate from themselves.

★ ‘‘The history of childhood is a nightmare from which we have only recently begun to awaken’ (1974:1)....