Philippe Ariés, Childhood and the Everyday

Abstract

This commentary navigates the oeuvre of Ariés’ writings on childhood, family, private life and death, with a focus on interrogating ‘who is a child?’ Departing from the intellectual history prevalent at the time, Ariés deployed the psychogenic approach to study the cultural history of childhood and family. He examines the quotidian experience of aesthetics and other documents of culture to reveal ‘what was thought about' viz. the mentalities’ of childhood and family spanning a vast canvas from the eleventh to the nineteenth centuries. Ariés provocatively proposes that childhood is a modern construct, highlighting that children were not always seen as precious, dependent and in need of adult protection. The magnitude of his intellectual adventure continues to be debated, particularly in childhood studies. The commentary includes an analysis of Ariés’ methods and insights about childhood that unsettle the narrow prisms that refract how we see, understand and educate children.