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4 - Work and Play: The Material Culture of Childhood in Early Modern Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2021

Janay Nugent
Affiliation:
Associate Professor, History Department and Institute for Child and Youth Studies, University of Lethbridge
Elizabeth Ewan
Affiliation:
University Research Chair and Professor, History and Scottish Studies, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario Canada
Jamie Reid Baxter
Affiliation:
Hon. Research Fellow, Scottish History, Glasgow University
Cathryn Spence
Affiliation:
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
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Summary

In 1612, The Book of Customs and Valuation of Merchandises in Scotland listed among the imported goods a gross of ‘Babeis [dolls] or puppettis for childrene’ at a total value of £3. References to toys appear occasionally in merchants’ records of the period, but the bare facts of the ledger leave several questions unanswered; where these objects came from, who used them, and why they were desired remain elusive. Beyond their monetary value, such objects have remained frustratingly invisible to the historian, unless they are captured for posterity in contemporary portraits. This source of information is inherently partial in the society it depicts, fulfilling perhaps the preconception that toys and play were the preserve of leisured and moneyed households. That imported goods were widely available to those who could afford them is of course no surprise.

An increasing awareness of children and their material culture is part of a wider archaeological interest in the early modern period. Children's toys are increasingly being identified both in the British Isles and further afield. This study has been aided by a greater appreciation of the potential of metal-detected finds, with the majority of artefacts discussed in this essay having been found in this manner. As a complement to both documentary and pictorial evidence, it is clear that the childhood of early modern Scotland has a distinct archaeological signature and involves objects that are largely invisible to documentary sources. As objects that belonged to or were used by children, they do not feature in the wills, testaments, and inventories that list and categorize adult and household possessions. It is clear also that many of these objects were made for households of low or modest incomes, those social groups whose private and domestic lives are less prevalent in documentary sources of the period. Recent archaeological theory has been critiqued for viewing toys solely as an appropriation of childhood by the adult world, with toys seen as tools to mould children to adult preconceptions of gender or class. This essay argues for a much more complex and dynamic understanding of the role that toys played in children's lives in early modern Scotland.

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Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2015

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