Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on filmic representations of Japanese children as constructors of their own realities. For the future of anthropological discourse, it is vital to conceptualize children within their culture, for which filmic narratives provide a crucial resource.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will focus on filmic representations of the social and interpersonal development of Japanese children constructing their own realities without the assistance of adults. It will situate these representations within the wider context of conceptions of childhood within Japanese society.

An anthropological and semiotic approach to films as text is utilized. In order to better understand the place of children within the world and in academic discourse it is necessary to look at representations of them within the media. In the past few decades there has been a significant change in perceptions of the place of childhood within the anthropological discipline, and this paper will showcase this development.

Through the use of film as ethnographic text the paper will examine conceptions of childhood within Japanese society focusing on: the concept of amae (passive love); the cultural norms/'master narratives' of group versus individual; uchi vs. soto (inside vs. outside); social change; family structure; education, and agency. The core of the paper will be an analysis of conceptions of childhood in the narrative discourse of the film Nobody Knows, based on true life events. It will examine how children who are truly alone struggle to survive within urban Japanese culture by creating their own subsection of society. This analysis investigates the filmic re-contextualization of Japanese childhood within their mediated narratives, reflecting on changing conceptions of Japanese youths as constructors of their own reality.

Paper Download (171 KB)

Paper short abstract:

This paper illustrates how children displaced by the armed conflict in Colombia utilized cultural resources to exercise agency and recreate discourses to reject or negotiate displacement as a category of identification and supplanted it with alternative identities.

Paper long abstract:

Displaced children by the armed conflict in Colombia represent a particularly vulnerable population forced to adapt to a new way of life. Drawing from sociocultural theories of identity that emphasize the interplay between structural factors and agency and the role of discourse as a mediating tool in the construction of identities, this study examines the ways displaced children in a violent and impoverished area located in the outskirts of Bogotá, Colombia, recreate the meanings of their physical and cultural worlds. The ethnographic data consist of five months of participant observation, focus group and in-depth interviews, and the analysis of multiple artifacts, including narratives, photographs, written texts and everyday talk within the program. The data suggest that children, rather than being passive victims of circumstance, are actively involved in a continuous process on making and unmaking categorical identities. The category of Internally Displaced Person (IDP), in addition to being a humanitarian label, develops into a social category constructed in the course of daily life. The analysis of children's narratives revealed children's struggles against the stigmatizing discourse of displacement constructed in the local context. Children did not passively internalize the world of displacement in which IDPs are either victimized, criminalized or pathologized. Instead they sought to actively make sense of the challenges, ambiguities and conflictual situations. Through the analysis of children´s discourses this paper illustrates how children utilized cultural resources that were available to exercise agency as they improvised responses to challenge the identities ascribed by others in their every day interactions.

Paper short abstract:

With changing conditions in India, the risk factors among adolescents seems to be increasing nowadays making them socially, culturally and academically weak and unfit. There is a need to introduce warning signs for them so that immediate intervention can be taken for the safeguards of the youths.

Paper long abstract:

Adolescence is a period of logical reasoning, understanding and thinking. Adolescents can perceive much knowledge, formulate concepts, imagine, make decisions and discover new facts. With changing conditions in India, the risk factors among adolescents seems to be increasing nowadays making them socially, culturally and academically weak & unfit. They have become vulnerable to exploitative strategies and engaged deeply with technological devices for the purpose of surfing social networking sites, chatting, internet surfing and watching porn sites. This golden period of their life which is to be spent in learning good things from their parents, teachers and other elder people is spent elsewhere. Such type of condition was found in the following study which was conducted among adolescents of Bilaspur city, Chhattisgarh. Most of them were found pervaded with computers, laptops, tablets, cell phones, T.V., etc. leaving behind their other important works. It is necessary to make them understand that technology is meant for their convenience and to gain information about what is going on in this world. Hence, there is a need not only for parents, but also for the school personnel to introduce warning signs for them so that immediate intervention can be taken for their safeguards. Children and youths need to be kept away from this haphazard situation as they are core of any population, socio-cultural resources and future developers of their nation. If the parents, teachers and counselors reach them as early as possible, they can intervene before troubling behavior leads to serious future problems.

Paper short abstract:

Prevention and elimination of child labour can be dealt only through education. The Nizamabad District of Andhra Pradesh (India) has shown the way to the whole world how complete eradication of child labour is possible through a hundred percent enrolments of children in school that also increased the socio-economic status of the community.

Paper long abstract:

It is globally accepted that the prevention and elimination of child labour and Human Resource Development through education are directly connected. Providing education means strengthen the human resource & break the vicious cycle of poverty and child labour. In reality there are only a few examples where this approach was taken and was successful. Nizamabad District of Andhra Pradesh (India) is one of them. The paper highlights the strategies adopted by the Government Officials to make the area Child Labour free by achieving 100 per cent enrolment of all the children below 14 years of age in the educational institutions.

For the study two mandals were selected (i) Mandal with hundred percent enrolments of children in educational institutions; and (ii) Mandal where enrolment rate in educational institutions was still low. The methodology adopted by the researchers was based on collection of primary and secondary data. The study also focused on group discussions, interviews and canvassing of questionnaires.

The result of the study showed that: A clear and simple definition of child labour among policy makers and implementers; success is possible when all those involved in the process of child labour eradication takes personal responsibility; success can be achieved when there is a convergence of the work of various departments with the focused vision of enrolling every child in school; adult labourers benefit by getting three-four times higher wages which resulted improvement in their living standard and high human development indices of the area. The paper will give insights at national and international level to strength the human resource.

Paper short abstract:

The way parents bring up their children differs from culture to culture, depending on cultural values. What can parents’ “investment” in their children tell us? In this paper I look at local concepts of upbringing among Kyrgyz people and how they are shaped with the change of a society.

Paper long abstract:

This paper looks at the concept of tarbiya, which is translated from Kyrgyz as upbringing. However, tarbiya is more than just upbringing: it is to bring up a child in a Kyrgyz way, which circles around the concepts of "yiman" (well-manner), discipline and work. Mainly it is to shape a culturally nourished child with the aim of passing the cultural values from one generation to the next.

Upbringing is a phenomenon that is sensitive to historical changes. However, tarbiya has a more stable character. Seventy years of the Soviet regime and the strengthening of Islam with the independent Kyrgyz Republic has brought many changes which contradict to Kyrgyz traditional way of upbringing. As it was noted by one local person, it is a pity that Kyrgyz people are born in a Kyrgyz way, brought up in a Russian way and buried in an Arabic way. Despite the changes, caused by globalization and modernization, Kyrgyz people manage to preserve their essential traditional cultural values.

To lead a modern life and at the same time preserve a traditional form of culture is not easy. In this paper I closely look at how the process of enculturation goes in modern Kyrgyzstan: what a child for Kyrgyz people is, what parents invest in children, what values are taken into consideration, what they expect back from children and how children cope with meeting these expectations. The discussion around the concept of tarbiya is aimed to contribute to the general concepts of a child, childhoods and enculturation.