Children’s play culture and socialization: insights on being a child in a mozambican community

• Main Authors: Marina Di Napoli Pastore, Denise Dias Barros
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Federal de São Carlos 2015-09-01
• Series: Cadernos de Terapia Ocupacional
• Subjects: Childhood; Playing; Social Occupational Therapy; Ethnography
• Online Access: http://www.cadernosdeterapiaocupacional.ufscar.br/index.php/cadernos/article/view/1172

Introduction: The number of studies involving children and their lifestyle is increasing, although still insufficient. Childhood specialists seek to understand a child’s lifestyle through the daily life and specific contexts of cultures to which they belong, seeking the non-universalization of childhood as a normative. African children, in turn, are set forth as “out of place”, for not following the standards and norms of European and North American children. In order to contribute to changing this paradigm, this article aims to discuss the child in a community located on the outskirts of a city of Mozambique, southern Africa. Objectives: To describe and discuss children’s socialization relationships and dynamics. Method: ethnography lasting five months in the city of Matola, Mozambique; A narrative discussion and analysis will be presented in this article. Discussion: Mozambican children have tasks and responsibilities guided by the social division of labor. Among its activities, whether domestic, communitarian or educational, there is time to play. The fun and laughter permeate the imagination and children’s worlds, producing ways of being, living and acting in the world that they share and belong. The play appears in this narrative as critical to the development and the construction of knowledge and expertise, along with cultural and social values, in addition to the accountabilities and relationships that children establish between peers and adults. Considerations: deconstruct the ways childhoods are imposed and break its universalization are the challenges encountered.