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The English word infancy is
derived from the Latin infantia, meaning inability to talk
Modern English Health Authorities
emphasise the developmental milestones of movement, handling objects, hearing
and talking, and seeing
Scott
1999: 4 proposes these definitions:
Scott
1999: 2 ‘We can only ever have a social understanding of biology’, and
pp.10-11 ‘the obvious fact of biological difference between infants and older
humans are really socially significant differences, and although human societies
throughout the world recognise biological differences between infants and
adults and between infants and children, how they “record” these differences
materially (and therefore archaeologically) is variable and extremely difficult
to detect’
She notes further that our
treatment of such variability depends on our own ideas concerning social versus
biological aspects of infancy.
In Egyptian formal art children
appear as miniature adults with an attribute of childhood (nakedness, a single
sidelock)
In the Egyptian
language, note the following words:
inp “(kingly) child”
Xrd “child” (common word for
child, sometimes also used to refer to servants)
Sr (feminine Srt) “child” (literally
‘little one’)
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