Material Culture, Children’s

Material culture refers to the combined interaction of meanings given to objects and physical surroundings and the core understandings persons have of themselves as individuals and members of social groups through the ways in which these are created, sustained, used, reproduced, and transformed. To refer to children’s material culture denotes the assigning of particular meanings to objects based on their association with actual children or with the idea of childhood. A superficial consideration of the things in the life of humans is one that is often dismissive, with there being an especially negative perspective toward the amount and types of materials [Page 1076]associated with contemporary childhood. However, given the importance noted by philosophers and theorists of the necessity of human engagement with objects to realize ...