The Cultural Construction of Childhood in Scandinavia, 3500 BC—1350AD

Abstract

A set of Swedish and N orwegian burial-grounds and churchyards from the Neolithic to the Early Middle Ages (3500 BC—1350 AD) is analysed as concerns children's graves. Patterns of burial rituals corresponding to various concepts of childhood are constructed. Childhood is looked upon as a cultural construction independent of time and space. The basic growth process from infancy to adulthood is fundamental to the concept of childhood in all societies, but its transformation into burial ritual, material culture, symbols, and ideology is varied.