Maya Children : : Helpers at the Farm / / Karen L. Kramer.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter HUP eBook Package Archive 1893-1999
• VerfasserIn: Kramer, Karen L.,
• MitwirkendeR: Boone, James L.,; Lancaster, Jane,
• Place / Publishing House: Cambridge, MA : : Harvard University Press, , [2009]; ©2005
• Year of Publication: 2009
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (272 p.)

Among the Maya of Xculoc, an isolated farming village in the lowland forests of the Yucatán peninsula, children contribute to household production in considerable ways. Thus this village, the subject of anthropologist Karen Kramer's study, affords a remarkable opportunity for understanding the economics of childhood in a pre-modern agricultural setting. Drawing on a range of theoretical perspectives and extensive data gathered over many years, Kramer interprets the form, value, and consequences of children's labor in this maize-based culture. She looks directly at family size and birth spacing as they figure in the economics of families; and she considers the timing of children's economic contributions and their role in underwriting the cost of large families. Kramer's findings--in particular, that the children of Xculoc begin to produce more than they consume long before they marry and leave home--have a number of interesting implications for the study of family reproductive decisions and parent-offspring conflict, and for debates within anthropology over children's contributions in hunter/gatherer versus agricultural societies. With its theoretical breadth, and its detail on crop yields, reproductive histories, diet, work scheduling, and agricultural production, this book sets a new standard for measuring and interpreting child productivity in a subsistence farming community.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Children as Helpers at the Nest -- 2. Sources of Variation in Children’s Time Allocation -- 3. Situating the Maya -- 4. Maya Families -- 5. Sampling the Population -- 6. How Maya Children Spend Their Time -- 7. Production and Consumption across the Life Course -- 8. Children’s Help from a Parent’s Perspective -- 9. How Long to Stay and Help? -- 10. Do Helpers Really Help? -- Postscript: The Unfolding World of the Maya -- Appendix A: Tables -- Appendix B: Food List -- Appendix C: Explanation of Scan and Focal-Follow Variables -- Appendix D: Adjusting an Analysis of Variance for Proportional Data -- Notes -- References -- Index