The young boy in the photograph is placing a krathong, or "leaf cup," into the water to celebrate "Loy Krathong," a festival on the night of the full moon in November, the traditional celebration described in the text as a custom of long standing in Thailand (formerly called Siam). As the author describes, it is an agricultural festival related to water, rice cultivation, and the cycles of the seasons, but it probably also has ancient roots in India, and may be related to Buddhism as well. As the author describes, the custom has changed with the country's modernization and urbanization. Nowadays Loy Krathong is more than just a quaint celebration for villagers and families. It is now a tourist event in Bangkok, complete with parades, fireworks, and beauty pageants. Ironically, the placement of thousands of krathongs on the rivers and canals has become a pollution problem in itself, especially after the natural materials like banana leaves and flowers were replaced with white styrofoam bases. As an environmentally more responsible solution, therefore, merchants have begun selling krathongs made of bread in fanciful shapes and colors. The bread breaks up in the water and becomes food for fish and other river creatures. Authorities also warn parents to watch their children, since there have been increased incidents of drownings as the children swim out to find coins floating in the krathongs.

The boy in the photograph is a resident of Father Ray Children's Home, an orphanage at Pattaya, Thailand. The text describing the custom is from the 1968 book by Phya Anuman Rajadhon (1888-1969) Essays on Thai Folklore. 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 custom described in the text by Phya Anuman Rajadhon is presented as it was traditionally practiced in Central Siam. The head of an infant was shaven as part of the khwan ceremony celebrating its survival and welcoming into the family. Some of the hair over the soft part of the infant's skull was left to grow into a topknot, to be cut in another ceremony when the child came of age. The author associates the custom with Indian cultural influence in the distant past, and documents its relationship to Buddhist practice. The second text and the photographs from the author's family collection documents the continuation of the practice among modern, urban families, but also shows its modification in modern times. The author reports that it has become much less common among contemporary families, amounting to a tiny percentage of the children in the author’s primary school. In addition, the topknot was cut at a much earlier stage in the child’s life, at the age of about 6-7 years, assuming that some of the children still wore it in the primary school.

The text describing the custom is from the 1968 book by Phya Anuman Rajadhon (1888-1969) Essays on Thai Folklore. 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 second text and photographs are from the baby photo album on a website by Thailand’s most prominent teenage blogger, Panrit "Gor" Daoruang (1986- ), who began an online diary at the age of twelve, and chronicled his own life and aspects of Thai culture and contemporary life. The site also teaches both English and Thai language through stories, quizzes, and audio files. The site attracted the attention of the Office of the National Culture Commission for its value in promoting Thailand’s image to a worldwide audience.

The photograph at the top shows two children gazing into the soft light of a fanoos [fan-NOOS], or traditional Ramadan lantern. In the photograph below, Ramadan lanterns are hung outside a shop in a section of medieval Cairo. As far as is known, the tradition originated in Egypt, perhaps as long ago as pharaonic times, when it may have announced the Nile flood. The tradition in its current form may date to the Fatimid period (969-1171 CE). It isn’t clear when the custom became associated with the Islamic holiday of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, when Muslims keep the fast from dawn to sunset. Indeed, lanterns and lamps of various kinds, of many hues and degrees of brightness, and even both real and imaginary, have always been special to Egypt. For centuries before the coming of electricity, Cairo itself was noted for its spectacular use of lanterns to illuminate the city, especially during the holy month of Ramadan.

The tradition of the colorful lanterns is coupled with the song, which children sing as they process through the streets of Egyptian, and especially Cairene neighborhoods announcing the coming of Ramadan, and collecting coins and sweets. The words of the song that are not translated are obscure, perhaps referring to fire or light (wahawi, ya wahawi). "You have gone, O Sha'ban" refers to the lunar month before Ramadan, and "the daughter of the Sultan is wearing her caftan" means she is dressed in a loose, often embroidered garment worn when going out and on holidays. "Give us this season's gift" is a plea for the small presents children would receive from adults for going out in procession to announce the coming of Ramadan.

Children are typically very excited about the coming of Ramadan, because it is a festive time that lasts an entire month. Even though abstaining from food and drink daily from dawn to sunset is a hardship, many children are anxious to participate as much as they can, fasting part of the day or just a few days. Some manage to fast the whole month by the age of ten or so. After sunset each day, in contrast, special, abundant food, friends and family, and evening activities, including visits to the mosque (Arabic, masjid) take place. Ramadan culminates in the major festival called Eid al-Fitr at the end of the month. Children traditionally receive new shoes and clothing, money, sweets and toys as a reward for just trying, or accomplishing the fast.

In the weeks and months before the start of Ramadan, the ninth lunar month when Muslims fast, traditional workshops like the one on Ahmad Maher Street in the medieval quarter of Cairo, turn recycled tin cans into glittering lanterns. In this "Street of the Lanterns," skills in cutting, hammering, perforating and framing colored glass that have been passed down through artisan families (who usually make ordinary items for the household), are set to the task of making the traditional Ramadan lanterns for children. Brass and tin strips cut from cans of cooking oil, fish, kerosene and cheese become the base, top, and frames for colored glass panes formed into numerous shapes. Many of the lanterns conform to a simple, tapered form like a carriage lamp. Others are shaped like multi-pointed stars, crescents called “a big slice of watermelon,” or simply very large and elaborately decorated versions of the smaller ones, but nearly as tall as an adult. Many of the artisans began making the lamps when they were 10 or 15 years old, like the boy in the photograph. Sitting cross-legged on the floor next to the older workers—likely a father, and uncle or grandfather—the youngest workers carry out the simple task of preparing the metal strips with tin snips and simple vice-like tools for drawing the metal straight and smooth. The older, more skilled artisans pierce designs, solder the metal strips, and frame the cut pieces of glass with tin or brass. A base for the candle, a lid, and a ring for hanging complete the lantern. In the second photograph, partly-finished lamps are visible. In the days before Ramadan, the lamps are hung in the shop on long poles for purchase.

While the sharp metal edges can injure young workers, the child labor nevertheless falls within the International Labor Organization guidelines. Acceptable work includes children helping parents around the home, earning pocket money after school and on holidays, and even helping in a family business. Such activity is viewed as beneficial to children's development and socialization. Unacceptable child labor, in contrast, is harmful to physical and mental development, to children's dignity, and "deprives children of their childhood." 1

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 text and photographs above describe a traditional Thai birth ritual that celebrates the child's reaching the milestone of one month old, at which time its survival seems more assured than at birth, and it becomes a full-fledged member of the family. Before the infant is one month old, according to tradition, it may have belonged merely to spirits. At this time, a Buddhist monk cuts the infant's hair. "Fire hair" refers to the hair with which the child was born and that grows until the end of its mother's postpartum period of lying in, or lying near the fire as Phya Anuman described the custom. The photograph shows the monk cutting or shaving the hair. The hair is placed on a small raft made of banana leaf and set afloat. The second part of the ceremony involves tying unspun cotton threads around the child's wrists and ankles.

This ceremony of the "khwan," the soul or life spirit, is a prominent object of ritual, and the text describing the custom is from Phya Anuman Rajadhon's (1888-1969) Customs Connected with Birth and the Rearing of Children (1948). 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 photographs are from the baby photo album on a website by Thailand's most prominent teenage blogger, Panrit "Gor" Daoruang, who began an online diary at the age of twelve, and chronicled his own life and aspects of Thai culture and contemporary life, and teaching both English and Thai language through stories, quizzes and audio files. The site attracted the attention of the Office of the National Culture Commission for its value in promoting Thailand's image to a worldwide audience.

The image from the Codex Mendoza (produced ca. 1535-1550) describes the Aztec birth ritual of bathing and naming the child, which, according to accounts from the 16th century, was usually held on the fourth day after birth. It was attended by the parents and kin, who gathered in the house before sunrise to feast and observe the ceremony. The midwife who aided the birth conducted the ceremony, and she is shown holding the infant. After consulting with the tonalpouhqui, a person knowledgeable in the sacred books would determine the sign of the child based on the moment of birth.

The image is a narrative, showing a sequence of events through the use of multiple images connected by dotted lines. The midwife took the infant from the cradle near its mother and carried it to a pottery vessel filled with water, placed on a mat. The midwife's counterclockwise footprints circle the mat, where two sets of symbolic objects are placed. Male infants were given a shield and arrows, tools for wood-, feather-, and metal-work, and the scribe's implements (depicted above the mat). Female children were given domestic objects: a broom, a reed basket and a spindle (depicted below the mat). The midwife performed four rituals with the water: she invoked the goddess of water and put drops of water on the baby's mouth, telling it to receive the water it needs to live upon the earth; she touched the baby's chest with her wet hand and invoked the purifying property of water that cleans the heart; she cast drops of water on the baby's head, telling the baby to let the water enter its body to dwell there. Finally, the midwife washed the child's body to keep evil away from it. After these four rites, a boy child was presented to the sky four times, calling on the sun and the astral gods, asking that he become a warrior. A girl child was not presented to the sky—a masculine god, but after the washing the midwife spoke to the cradle asking the protection of the mother goddess. Following the ceremony, the baby was given a name, often one based on the day and time of birth.

The hadith, or narrated report, reflects the Islamic custom of sacrificing a sheep upon the birth of a child, sharing the meat with extended family members, and donating some of it as charity (sadaqa). This practice of the people of Madinah mentioned in Al-Muwatta is based on the precedent of Muhammad in establishing the custom as an Islamically appropriate one. Several aspects of the hadith and the interpretation are noteworthy: the sacrifice was made for both boys and girls, the animal must be a healthy and sound one, and the pagan custom of smearing blood on the child is deemed un-Islamic. This may refer to a pre-islamic custom, like denying this ceremony to a girl child. Part of the aqiqa ceremony is naming the child and cutting its hair (or shaving the baby's head) and weighing the hair so as to give an equal amount of silver as charity.

Al-Muwatta is among the earliest written compendia of legal interpretations based on the two pre-eminent sources of Islamic knowledge, the Qur'an, or scripture, and the hadith, or reports of the sayings and deeds of Muhammad. Al-Muwatta, compiled and edited by Malik ibn Anas (c. 711 – 795 CE), means "well-trodden path" for its authoritative documentation of legal opinion and practices in Madinah, the city where Islam was established. The hadith covers both religious duties and social practices such as contracts, family matters, civil and commercial matters, and customs.

The girl in the photograph is from the Asante peoples in Ghana. She is holding a purple plastic baby doll of a type that is frequently found in markets in Ghana. The doll is both imported from Taiwan and made domestically in Ghana. The modern plastic doll is based on an older, traditional form of wooden figurine manufactured by village blacksmiths to represent the adult, female figure. Girls play with these dolls they call biiga ("child"), by caring for them, dressing and feeding them, and sometimes tucking them into the waistbands of their skirts just as women carry infants in cloth wrappers wrapped around their torsos. There are significant rituals associated with girls, including the belief that proper care for the doll can ensure fertility and survival of children. Girls also carry the dolls for display when they go among adults, and might expect a token present when, for example, they place their doll on the ground in front of a merchant in the market. Wealthier families and those in the towns have come to consider the plastic dolls to be more prestigious than the traditional wooden ones. Unlike the Mossi dolls, however, the plastic versions are shaped like a girl rather than a woman, and have generally Caucasian features and western dress.