THE BIRTH OF THE MIDDLE AGE CHILDHOOD IN WESTERN HISTORIOGRAPHY
The article is devoted to the analysis of the historiography of childhood in Western Europe during the Middle Ages. Among the factors that influenced the emergence of studies on childhood history, there was primarily the high popularity of psychoanalysis and the theory of cognitive development of Jean Piaget. In addition, a new generation of historians of the 1960s and 70s began to study the history and life experience of people who were previously excluded from historical research: children, women, ethnic groups, migrants, peasants and workers. Finally, with the development of computer technology, historians have a good opportunity to model demographic processes, which included not only adults, but also children. Since the middle of the 20th century, studies of childhood history began to form two main directions of historical thought. The first is presented by the French scientist Philippe Aries and his followers. The first direction of researchers is characterized by the idea that during the Middle Ages children were not distinguished from adults, and childhood was a single and inseparable stage of life. The main arguments are the lack of appropriate age concepts in the language and visual sources on which children are presented in the form of «young adults». The changes that occurred in the awareness of the phenomenon of childhood were imagined as a continuous movement in an ascending line, from the «dark ages» towards modern humanistic ideas. Subsequent historians criticized similar views because they relied mainly on the narrow source base of the late Middle Ages and Early Modern times. A more thoughtful analysis of the sources, notes B. Hanawalt, makes it possible to criticize the allegations of Aries and his supporters. The theme of «human ages» was very popular in the Middle Ages, and the periods of childhood and adolescence can be found in scientific and artistic works of the time, as well as visual sources.