Children at Work: Looking for Evidence in Past Societies

Abstract

A large part of existing production activities within various past populations, from prehistoric to modern times, is now well known among the scientific community. Activities are one of the main notions that help to characterize past societies. During the Palaeolithic period, we usually refer to hunter-gatherer-forager groups, suggesting that the main activity related to their subsistence consists of hunting, gathering, and foraging. Similarly, for the next period, peoples were designated as farmers-breeders, and their everyday life included farming, breeding, or other similar activities. This concept also applies to more recent populations. One example that we usually talk about is pre-industrial societies, which refers to the period before the industrial revolution that occurred in the West during the first half of the nineteenth century. Regardless of the period, several indicators allow us to define and describe the different chores that were performed in past societies. From the tools to the activity markers on human bones during their lifetime to the production of artefacts, a wide area is open for study and discussion. To date, it has been possible to determine that certain individuals specialized in archery (Thomas 2014) or were part of horse riding populations (Pálfi and Dutour 1996; Baillif-Ducros et al. 2012) based on activity markers. Ceramic workshops can even be identified through specific manufacturers or designs (Murphy and Poblome 2016). Studies have also considered the social structure of these different activities, such as the ‘division of work’ according to gender, as mentioned by Leroi-Gourhan and Brézillon (1973) on the Magdalenian site of Pincevent or by Binford (1991) for the Nunamiut people. The International Labour Organization (2012) defines child labour as: ‘any form of work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, interferes with their schooling and that is harmful to physical and mental development’. This current definition carries a negative connotation that may not have existed in the past. However, we will try to avoid this denomination (except if we refer to the exploitation of children) and instead use the terms ‘activity’ and ‘work’. One may, then, wonder what were children’s roles within group production activities? This issue has rarely been considered for the immature cohort and the importance of the contribution that children of past societies made to the economy is still widely unexplored (Buchet et al. 2006). However, ethnography and history have long established the active participation of children in community work (Wileman 2005; AIDELF 2006). Archaeological evidence exists, such as in a mining network, where children, who are physically smaller, could reach