called a bulla, a chain with a pouch containing protective
amulets. Boys became adults in a ceremony conducted at the
age of 16, at which point they exchanged the toga praetexta
for a simple white toga called the toga virilis.
Girls spent much of their time at home, learning female
skills such as weaving and sewing. Th ey a lso went to school or
studied with pedagogues, though female education was not
considered as important as male education. Girls, like boys,
wore the bulla necklace; they stopped wearing it when they
married. Th ey also wore the toga praetexta on special occa-
sions. Girls did not undergo a ceremony inducting them into
adulthood. Th ey married at about the age of 18; younger girls
certainly married, but it was oft en considered improper.
Both boys and girls played roles in Roman religion. Chil-
dren could hold priesthoods and were in fact desired for these
positions because of their purity. Th e young Julius Caesar
(100 b.c.e.–44 b.c.e.) was appointed fl amen dialis, chief priest
of Jupiter, when he was about 13 years old. Because the fl a-
men dialis had to be married, Julius Caesar wed a young girl
when he took offi ce; she served as his female counterpart, the
fl aminia dialis. Vestal virgins, the priestesses who cared for
the sacred fl ame of the hearth goddess, Vesta, entered service
at the age of seven or eight and spent the next 20 years or so
performing their duties.
Th e Roman nobility especially valued their children,
both boys and girls, as necessary players in maintaining
the family’s status. Boys were raised to uphold family hon-
or. Girls were taught from an early age that their duty was
to marry whomever their fathers selected as husbands for
them, with the understanding that this choice would be dic-
tated by fi nancial and political needs and not by romantic
inclination. Despite this apparently callous attitude toward
off spring, there is ample evidence that Roman parents loved
their children and wanted them to enjoy their childhoods.
Ancient vases depict toys, and ancient writers wrote about
children’s games. Funeral inscriptions oft en mention chil-
dren, and parents who lost children sometimes held elabo-
rate funerals for them.
THE AMERICAS
BY ANGELA HERREN
Little information exists on the role of children in the an-
cient Americas. In the past archaeological studies focused
on adult roles in society; however, some recent scholarship
addresses the social experience of children in the ancient
period. Th ese studies rely on archaeological evidence and
early forms of artwork that may represent infants and chil-
dren. Some scholars caution that the concept of childhood
is a social construct. Like their descendents, ancient Ameri-
cans probably welcomed children into the world, training
them early to perform tasks appropriate to their gender, but
did not conceive of childhood as a distinct period in one’s
life. Rather, children gradually assumed the responsibilities
of adulthood, probably marrying a few years aft er the on-
set of puberty. While men generally engaged in agricultural
production, hunting, and other activities, women typically
cared for children, prepared food, maintained the home,
wove textiles, and in some cultures were responsible for ce-
ramic production.
In South America the Paracas (ca. 700 b.c.e.–200 c.e.)
and Nazca (ca. 1–700 c.e.) cultures interred many children
in their burial grounds on the southern coast of Peru. Twen-
tieth-century excavations along the sandy desert coastline
found the remains of children among the hundreds of
mummy bundles buried in shallow shaft tombs. Th e bodies,
placed in a fetal position within a basket and wrapped in
layer upon layer of cloth, generally show that the children
experienced malnutrition or died from childhood diseases.
Th e children wore textiles sized to fi t their small bodies, and
some burials included fi gurines or toys in the layers of their
bundle. Archaeological evidence indicates that early cul-
tures experienced a much higher infant mortality rate than
is true today, and the average life expectancy for adults was
37 or 38 years old.
While few clues exist about childhood experience in North
America, skeletal remains and artwork from Mesoamerica and
South America indicate that many cultures practiced cranial
deformation, compressing and shaping the skull of a newborn
infant with boards or mats to achieve an aesthetically pleasingOlmec fi gure of a baby (ceramic, cinnabar, and red ochre) 12th to ninth
century b.c.e., Mexico (Copyright the Metropolitan Museum of Art)children: The Americas 197