This unusual bronze figurine of a female runner was possibly made in or near Sparta, Greece, between 520-500 BCE. Ancient Sparta was the only Greek city-state that provided girls with public schooling including physical education. Girls were praised for their swiftness and likened to prized racehorses in choral songs (called partheneia) sung by girls' choruses in Sparta and elsewhere. Spartan "virgins" also participated in the Heraea, games held at Olympia every four years in honor of the goddess Hera. Winners received olive crowns, shared a cow they sacrificed to Hera, and were allowed to dedicate statues of themselves engraved with their names. The bronze rivet on her right foot suggests that this figurine was possibly attached to a vessel or utensil at one time.

In what ways does this girl's body reveal that she was athletic? What might her clothing tell us about notions of girlhood in Sparta? Female athletes wore a short off-the-shoulder tunic like the one donned by this runner. It more closely resembled the semi-nude bare-breasted style of the legendary Amazons than the ornate and heavily draped Korai "maidens" elsewhere in Greece. What might account for the varieties of girlhoods throughout the Greek world?

Credit: London, British Museum 208. Photo: Museum, Courtesy of Trustees.

This small (5.5 inches high) terracotta sculpture was made in Greek southern Italy in the late fourth century BCE. It depicts two adolescent girls playing the game of "knucklebones" (astragaloi in Greek). The game was usually played like the modern game of "jacks": one threw the knucklebones in the air and attempted to catch as many as possible. They were also used like modern "dice." Each of the four long sides of the knucklebone had a value: the convex side was worth 3, the concave 4, and the two flat sides 1 and 6. Most knucklebones were made out of the actual ankle bones of sheep or goats, but fancier ones were made of ivory, bronze, or terracotta. Children of both sexes, adolescent girls, and young women played knucklebones as revealed by statues like this one as well as paintings on vases.

This statue is both a depiction of a game and a representation of gender ideals. Whereas girls in the nearby city-state of Sparta were taught to read and write and engaged in athletic competitions, those in Athens spent their girlhoods largely indoors practicing the domestic arts (e.g., spinning, weaving, cooking, and childcare). Athenian girls typically married at the age of 15 or so and spent the rest of their lives engaged in household activities.

The image shows the reverse of a Thai 100-baht banknote, with engravings of of King Chulalongkorn and King Vajiravudha statues. The banknote's background theme is education. The detail on the right illustrates Thailand's traditional education system, showing a monk instructing boys in the courtyard of a temple. Until the 20th century, the village temple was a place where most young boys from peasant families received a basic education. Such temples typically received small boys to serve in the temple as dek wat, or "children of the temple," from the age of eight years old. The dek wat carried out minor housekeeping chores in exchange for instruction in reading and writing. They also memorized scriptural passages appropriate for important rituals. The dek wat served for four years or more, after which they could be ordained as novice monks (samana or samanen) for one or two years. At the age of 20, the novice could advance to higher ordination. Parents often sponsor a child as novice, who still spends time at home, but donations from other villagers help to provide for novices' robes, alms bowls, and other needs.

The detail of the banknote on the left represents modern mass education in Thailand, with boys and girls in uniform exiting a modern school building flying the national flag. In 1921, the Compulsory Primary Education Act was proclaimed, and in 1960, compulsory schooling was extended to seven years. At that time, the government made a series of five-year plans that resulted in widespread construction of wooden village primary schools and concrete-block secondary schools. Universal public education has largely replaced temple and monastery for imparting basic literacy, but some villages still rely on the dek wat system for boys' religious training. While it is no longer the only path toward higher education, a temporary period of ordination as a Buddhist monk is still a valued rite of passage for boys before they marry and start familes. Young men who have served as monks for a few months or years are viewed as better marriage partners and more suitable candidates for village leadership positions. Young men who remain monks for a longer period of education learn traditional scripts and gain the knowledge to officiate at religious ceremonies in the village and surrounding area.

The fish mobile above is a type traditionally hung over the cradle in Thailand. It is made from the folded, woven leaves of the palm, especially in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya province. The fish depicted is the Thai barb, or carp, which is a symbol of prosperity. The smaller fish, the offspring of the larger one, are thought to symbolize fertility. The custom of making the woven mobiles is indigenous to Thai Muslims, particularly the spice traders who sailed in houseboats along the Chao Phraya River. Fish mobiles are also placed in the entry of homes and shops as a harbinger of good fortune. The text describing the custom is from the 1948 book by Phya Anuman Rajadhon (1888-1969) Customs Connected with Birth and the Rearing of Children. The author is a prolific and well regarded literary figure and university professor. Although he did not receive formal academic training in anthropology, his writings have constituted a major source for anthropologists and others on customs from Siam, the traditional name for Thailand.

The carved stone relief is from the interior of Candi Mendut, a Buddhist temple in Central Java. Mendut was built during the early Shailendra dynasty in about 824 CE. It may have been built on the site of a Hindu temple from a previous century. The rectangular, stone temple is 26.4 meters (86.6 feet) tall and is constructed on a 2 meter (6.5 feet) platform. The surrounding wall is covered with reliefs that relate stories from Buddhist teachings along with lush carvings of plants, fruits, and flowers. This relief is one of a pair showing the goddess Hariti and her husband Kuwera (or Kubera in Sanskrit).

The relief panel on the north wall opposite Hariti depicts her consort or husband, a figure by the name of Kuwera, or the yaksha Avataka, also sometimes called Panchika. Kuwera is a god of wealth and well-being, and is a guardian of children. According to legend, Kuwera is king of the yakshas, the god of wealth who was transformed by an encounter with the Buddha into an important defender of Buddhism. Kuwera is depicted sitting on a bench surrounded by children playing and helping each other climb fruit trees. Kuwera wears an ornate headdress surrounded by flying parrots, and his right leg is extended over the edge of the bench, under which sit pots filled with jewels or other riches. Versions of such depictions of Kuwera and Hariti are found in many Buddhist temples. In Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist mythology, figures called yakshas are derived from nature spirits who may be benign or monstrous.

In 17th-century New England, Puritan beliefs about "infant depravity" (born with "original sin") generated anxieties about "eternal damnation" that shaped methods of childrearing and notions of death. Puritan beliefs can be "read" on the gravestones often made out of dark grey slate. The standard three-lobed shape of early Puritan gravestones reflected the belief that to enter eternity the soul passed through arches and portals. The primary motifs included skulls (winged "death's heads"), skeletons, hourglasses, bones, scythes, and coffins. Upper-case lettering lent authority to bold inscriptions. Ligatures (e.g., combining letters into words) saved space. Stone carvers used abbreviations and raised letters especially at the far right margin to make words fit on to a line.

By the early 18th century Enlightenment ideas about children's innocence, natural impulses, and malleability impacted perceptions of children and methods of child rearing. In addition to the changing material culture of children's lives, were varying modes of representing death.

Steadily (albeit unevenly) over the course of the 18th century, there were significant changes in the shape, height, design, inscription, and composition (e.g., sandstone) of tombstones. The hand-carved death's skulls were increasingly replaced by winged faces representing resurrection and ever-lasting life. Smiling angels, sentimentalized urns, winged cherubs, and natural objects (birds, fruit, willows) were carved on the gravestones of children whose lives were cut short. Inscriptions gradually changed from the stark Puritan style, "HERE LYETH YE BODY OF" to "In Memory of." In that semantic shift, "lyeth" became "lyes" and finally, "lies." Ligatures gave way to unabbreviated words, verse, and Biblical quotations inscribed in upper and lower case with a liberal use of the elongated "S."

Compare this gravestone to those from the 17th century as well as later ones using the on-line Farber Gravestone Collection. In what ways does Sarah Sanford's 1722 slate (21 inch) gravestone from Newport, Rhode Island, reflect the transition between Puritan notions and Enlightenment ideals of childhood? How does the line ("mouthmark") above the skull's teeth change the expression of the death's head? In what ways does the placement of the skull's teeth make them look more like a neck decoration?

Mary Green of Worcester, MA, created this embroidery in 1804 at the age of 16. She based it on the 1796 engraving, "Liberty in the Form of the Goddess of Youth Giving Support to the Bald Eagle," by artist-entrepreneur, Edward Savage (fig. 2).

In this enormously popular allegory that celebrated nationhood in the years after the American Revolution, Liberty is portrayed as a female adolescent. Draped in a long, flowing gown, this stylized Liberty nourishes the Republic (represented by the eagle). She also treads on symbols of British oppression (e.g., the key to the Bastille on a broken chain, a scepter, and the garter of a royal order). An American flag and the Liberty Phrygian Cap float above her head. In what ways does Green's interpretation of Liberty differ from Savage's? What might account for those differences?

The representation of a youthful Liberty was not only allegorical; it also was a prescriptive message that must have resonated with girls like Mary Green. Anxieties about the future of untried democracy led contemporaries to compare the independent states to impetuous youth. In order to ensure the future of the Republic, adolescent girls were trained to fulfill their forthcoming role as "Republican Mothers" who would inculcate their children with civic virtue. The female seminaries launched at the end of the 18th century provided an unprecedented academic curriculum as well as lessons in feminine accomplishments exemplifying refinement and utility. Girls perfected their repertoire of fancy needlework skills (e.g., French and bullion knot stitch) by embroidering popular pictorials (such as this one), commemoratives, and morning art with silk floss. Girls also practiced their knowledge of geography by embroidering map samplers on ivory silk.

This image found on a wall around the University of Vienna and the Austrian Parliament, in 2008, is a graffiti stencil of Pippi Longstocking, the eponymous fictional character created by the Swedish children's book author, Astrid Lindgren, in 1945. Since then, Pippi Långstrump (in Swedish) has been translated into 90 languages and made into movies and TV series. The image here is based on the portrayal of Pippi by Inger Nilsson, the 9-year-old actress who starred in a 1968 Swedish TV series. Dubbed versions were shown on German TV in 1971 and in the U.S. by 1973 where they became enormously popular.

Though she is known by other names around the world ("Harisnyás Pippi" in Hungarian), Pippi is an iconic figure whose gravity defying red braids, oversized shoes, mismatched socks, home-made clothing, and freckled face represent her playful and plucky world view.

Pippi is an independent, unconventional, anti-authoritarian 9-year-old rebel who lives alone in a villa she shares with her monkey and horse. Although she is a perpetual outsider, Pippi is an advocate for the rights of children, generous with her wealth (though unmaterialistic), and a critic of unquestioned adult authority. She is enormously strong (lifting a horse and flinging policemen) and has a great sense of humor. The self-educated Pippi challenges the status quo by contesting language, logic, and principles as expressed here with her creative answer to the math problem: "2 x 3 = 4."

Illegally stenciled onto a wall in a public space, this graffitied image of Pippi expresses the subversive principles and practices of young adults who have made this "anti-Shirley Temple" into a poster child of the counter culture. As the quintessential gender bender, Pippi is especially beloved by girls and women. But not all: some see her as a poor role model for children.

Pippi's world-wide reach provides unique opportunities for in-depth and cross cultural analyses of Pippi's meanings to children and youth. The enormous variety of sources available (e.g., books, movies, dolls as well as children's drawings and handmade costumes, etc.) make it possible to utilize textual, visual, and material culture methods of research.

The photograph shows boys in Diepsloot Township, Johannesburg, South Africa, and one of the rolling toy creations with which the photo shows them playing. These elaborately designed constructions are made from discarded aluminum or steel, soft drink cans, plastic processed food tubs, and water bottles. The material that holds them together is ordinary wire such as coat-hangers. The fanciful constructions do not merely piece together ready-made components. They are often cut with scissors so as to transform found materials into more fanciful, decorative and dynamic parts. Paint or some type of pigment seems to have been added to the bottle that forms the body of the vehicle, which is embellished with fringe-cut cans in the manner of a chimney or headlamp, and the margarine-tub trailer has a similar fringed can on the rear. The makers have given attention to color, form, movement and functionality in these toys. The children themselves collaborate or even compete in the construction of these toys. The photograph is from C is for Candy, the design blog by Candy Chang, photographer, designer, artist, and urban planner in Helsinki, Finland, who travels widely to collect innovative ideas about design and urban spaces, and is a 2009 TED Global Fellow.

These two terracotta heads of smiling children stem from excavations at Bulandi Bagh in Patna, India. The molded figures, about 10 cm. (4 in.) high, are rare and significant, both because of their naturalistic facial expressions and technical artistry. Among the figurines and other sculptures from the site are several smiling boy and girl statues with elaborate headdresses, identified by art historians as such because they clearly show the physiognomy of children. Other statues include dancing figurines with elaborate headdresses, animal figurines, and other artistically excellent pieces. The heads were produced from molds, a technique that reflects Hellenistic influence stemming from the invasion of Alexander the Great. Art historians question whether the molds were imported or whether the artisans were exposed to prototypes, to what extent Indian court artisans who produced these pieces fused foreign influences with unique Indian elements. They have been dated to the 3rd century B.C.E., during the Mauryan Period. The location is part of the modern city of Patna, containing the site of the ancient city of Pataliputra.