Members of society into social groupings. However sociologists now recognize that age
Can also affect our experiences within our society because it is more than merely a biological process as different cultures attach different status to and significance to certain age groups. Braham and Jane state “everyone is included in membership of these different groups” (2002 xi). This essay focuses on the treatment and status of children in the majority world contrasted to the experience of childhood in the minority world. In the majority world children often work from an early age and are expected to fulfil adult Responsibilities because children are thought of as competent from a young age, thus these children tend to have a more interdependent relationship with adults. This kind of childhood is at odds with minority world ideals of childhood in which children are segregated from the adult world, indulged and controlled. Boyden explains that minority world childhoods are so different because in the western world it is believed “childhood is a time for play incompatible with adult responsibilities” (1990).
In 2008 National surveys calculated that there were 215 million children working across the world. This is because children in third world countries such as Africa or Latin America are expected to work from an early age. Boyden notes that in some third world countries it is the children, rather than the parents, who are the main source of income for a house hold. In these cultures adults believe that working in childhood teaches children the vital skills needed for later life and it is perfectly acceptable within those societies. People in these cultures see children as skillful and able workers who can be given important jobs such as: working in brick killens, working in mines, and mixing gun powder for fireworks. In minority worlds however if a child were working at such