Peer Cultures And Interpretive Reproduction

Chapter 6: Children’s Peer Cultures and Interpretive Reproduction I. Examining Peer Culture From Children’s Perspective A. Children and their peer cultures are worthy of documentation and study in their own right. B. Children’s culture is not something kids carry around in their heads to guide their Goffman, 1974). C. Childrens peer culture as a stable set of activists or routines, artifacts, values, and concerns that children produce and share in interaction with peers (Corsaro, 2003: Corsaro & Eder, 1990). II. Central Importance Of Peer Culture in Interpretive Reproduction A. It is through collective production of and participation in routines that children’s evolving memberships in both their peer cultures and
the adult world are situated. B. Children’s participation in adult-child routines often generates disturbances or uncertainties in their lives. C.
Children most often occupy subordinate positions and are exposed to much more cultural information than they can process and understand. D. From the perspective of interpretive reproduction, children’s activities with peers and their collective production of a series of peer cultures are as important as their interaction with adults.
Parental Versus Effects on Children’s Development A. Judith Harris pointed to work in behavioral genetics, which claims 50% of personality outcomes can be linked to genetic factors and the remaining 50% to the environment. B. Behavior geneticists consistently found that growing up in the same home and being reared by the same parents had little or no effect on adult personalities of siblings (Harris, 1998: Plomin & Daniels, 1987); C. birth order have significant effects (Dunn & Plomin, 1990).
Children’s Transition to initial peer cultures A. Families play a key role in the development of peer culture in interpretive reproduction. B. As children go out into the world, they are aimed in specific directions, are prepared for interactions with distinct interpersonal and emotional orientations, and are armed with particular cultural resources that are all derived from earlier experiences in their
families.

III. Symbolic Aspects of children’s culture A. Childhood symbojlic culture- various representations or expressive symbols of children’s beliefs, concerns, and values B. 3 primary sources of childhood symbolic culture are children’s media, childrens literature, and mythical figures and legends (Santa Claus, tooth fairy,etc) IV.
The Media A. Children 6 and younger spend an average of 2 hours a day using screen media in the United States. B. There are many studies that document how media violence can contribute to anxiety, desensitization, and increased aggression in children in both the short and long term. C. 5-8 yr old girls had complex interpretations of being a ruler and a princess in the films that were at variance with certain critics of Disney in terms of gender and race. V. Literature and Fairy Tales A. The Uses of Enchantment, presents a psychoanalytic interpretation of classic fairy tales. B. Although Wolf and Heath studied just one family and two children, their work provides a wealth of information about how children are exposed to and appropriate symbolic culture through literature . VI. Material Aspects of Children’s Culture A. Childhood material culture is clothing, books, artistic and literacy tools, and toys. B. Much of the research related to children’s material culture focuses exclusively on toys. C. Childen develop as individuals, they collectively and creatively appropriate, use, and infuse toys with meaning. VII. Historical Studies of Children’s Material
Culture A. Brian Sutton-Smith has argued, the “predominant nature of play throughout history has been play with others, not play with objects” (Corsaro, 139) B. Historical studies based primarily on the analysis of autobiographies capture how these two attitudes toward toys often overlap. C. Mergen noted “toys have meaning only when children play with them” (Corsaro, 141) VIII. Marketing Studies of Children’s Material Culture A. Developmental and educational psychologists who study children’s material culture normally focus on the effects of various play objects and toys on children’s cognitive and social development.