Don't be Afraid of the Numbers: Finding Kids in your Archaeological Space

Summary

The archaeology of childhood has developed over the past two decades, however the full depth of this field of study has not been explored. Prior to the late 1800s, over half the population of the United States was under the age of 20. Toys and artifacts associated with children are often overlooked and marginalized in the archaeological record. It is through children that culture is taught, altered, and created. Childhood is a period of time when personhood is malleable and can be influenced. This critical demography and period of cultural formation in individual lives can be easily incorporated into current research designs. Research was conducted at Fort Garland, the coal company town of Berwind, and the Ludlow massacre sites in Colorado. Through the incorporation of spatial distribution and frequency counts in methodology children can be quantified in the archaeological record.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Archaeology of Education: From Pedagogy to Practice   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2015

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 435