Aries

• What did Aries look at?

  • He looked at the construction of childhood
  • He looked at paintings
• What did Aries say about the concept of childhood?

  That it has only existed in the last 300 years in Western European society
• What happened to childhood in a medieval society?

  The child took on the role of an adult as soon as it was physically able. Children in medieval paintings look like mini-adults
• What did Aries suggest about industrialisation?

  Social attitudes changed and people began to value children as needing special care and nurturing
• What did the importance of childhood reinforce?

  The importance of the role of the housewife - it was the housewife's job to look after children
• 'cult of childhood'

  It first developed in the middle classes and overtime it has become part of working class values
• What did Pollack criticise about Aries?

  He criticised Aries work because he used paintings as the main evidence of his research