ABSTRACT
There is considerable interest in the study of ‘stuff’ (Miller 2010), often intentionally loosely defined, but usually meaning discrete objects with a particular focus on the meaning of stuff used by people. This chapter aims to try to develop an analysis of stuff, but drawing on the wider conceptions of materiality (Dant 2006) and material civilization (Braudel 1981). It will be argued that ‘stuff,’ understood as material culture and objects, is not enough to provide an adequate account of the importance of the material world for children and hence conceptualizations of childhood. As part of the material turn, there is a need to look closely at the material infrastructure of daily life in historical context and with a much keener eye kept on materiality as technology that determines the place, space, and flow of children through the period known as childhood. This chapter will focus on the everyday technologies of childhood to develop links between the anthropological approach to the analysis of things, and the historical and sociological approaches to the study of technology. The examples of water and toys will be explored to focus on the important relationships between the background of material civilization and the more discrete popular material artifacts in the lives of children.
