Overview

This collection of essays is about the lives, ideas and modes of interaction of children in Ethiopia, against the background that in-depth knowledge of perceptions of cultural values and practices regarding children would contribute to improved work with them and to the promotion of their rights as children. The study is supported by Save the Children Sweden and Norway, and the essays are a collaboration between those bodies and the Department of Social Anthropology at Addis Ababa University. Some essays are based on Master theses from the Department, and others on fieldwork. Seminars and meetings formed part of the research with and about children. The editor provides a theoretical, methodological and ethical aspects overview, and makes proposals on possible new themes. The five other contributors cover Conceptualizations of Children and Childhood: The Case of Kolfe and Semen Mazegaja, Addis Ababa; Growing up in Town and in the Countryside in Amhara Society; Continuity and Change in the Lives or Urban and Rural Children: The Case of Two Schools in SNNPR; Conceptualizations of Children and Childhood in Bishoftu, Oromia; and Children in Ethiopian Media and School Textbooks.