Methodological Peculiarities of Childhood Studies in Social Anthropology

The article considers the methods and the role of children in childhood studies by Russian and foreign researchers. The article demonstrates that the contemporary socio-humanitarian tendency in the study of children is a field open to interdisciplinary studies of childhood in which children can play a special role. The article shows that children's roles (positions) are changing in the socio-humanitarian research today. Previously, children were regarded as irresponsible and dependent on adults. The childhood culture was structured through the idea that childhood was not a special period of a human life. At present, children are perceived as social actors. According to this approach, children's subjectivity extends to their own understanding and their own experience. Following the idea of children as active social actors who must be involved and heard, children become participants or co-researchers. Based on the works of foreign and Russian childhood anthropologists, the author considers the key foundations of the modern methods of childhood studies. From the point of view of the modern approach, methodological features and difficulties in working with children of different ages by social anthropologists were considered. Children and childhood as an investigation focus are examined by many branches of science. This explains some difficulties in the determination of childhood age periods. The author singles out four main childhood age periods. The infant age can be considered in the context of maternal practices, children do not have their own opinions, they only know the world around them, and the optimal method of studying children during this period is the classical ethnographic method - observation. "Child friendly" methods are the most comfortable for working with preschoolers, they help to obtain information using gaming techniques (image analysis, situation design). When working with children of the primary school age, the range of methods is broader (interviews, focus groups); communication should not be long and tiring; the language should be understandable for children. Adolescence is a period in which children have their own opinions; therefore, standard research methods can be used, like for adult respondents: deep, formalized and semi-formalized interviews. The author concludes that, when working with children, anthropologists should use methods in accordance with children's age group. In addition, it is very important to pay attention to the development of new "child friendly" methods, as the need to study children of primary and pre-school ages is topical, and opportunities for working with them are limited. "Child friendly" method open up opportunities for a wide attraction of children of various ages to investigate issues connected with childhood. Such methods take into account thee psycho-physiological, ethnic, cultural and other socially important characteristics of children. Modern anthropologists must try to find optimal ways for promoting and protecting the interests of children in childhood studies.

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