Children´s engagement with their environment. An ethnographic approach to children?s learning by participating in community endeavors (Salta, Argentina)

REMORINI, C.; JACOB, A.; DESPERES, P.

Florianópolis

Congreso; 18th Congress. International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences.; 2018

IUAES

Learning about the environment is a crucial aspect of human development. It allows children to develop necessary skills that make possible not only their integration into community life but also their wellbeing and health. Contemporary small-scale societies facing rapid ecological change provide a unique opportunity to study the relationship between ecological changes and the learning of local knowledge. Building off these ideas, in this paper, we characterize different ways in which children become competent participants in community endeavors, based on the results of an ongoing ethnographic research in rural communities of Salta province. Data analyzed here come from interviews performed to children?s caregivers and participant observations as well as photographs and video record of children?s activities. Our analysis of enskillment processes focuses on two settings which represent for children different opportunities for sharing activities with multi-aged groups of people: 1) domestic chores, including collecting and farming; 2) community rituals where children are invited to be part of parades, processions, and demonstrations (?batida de banderas?). In both settings, we noticed that children learn by observing and pitching in and adults do not attempt to control children actions, except when they put them at risk. We also noticed the ways in which adults orient children?s attention to relevant environmental features, and show respect to children?s initiative and autonomy