This book was submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Literature at the University of Chicago by the candidate Lilla Estelle Appleton to obtain the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. As the title makes evident, the study is made through the equivalence of the child with the ‘savage’, simultaneously making those so-called ‘adult savages’ comparable to the child. The title demonstrates the colonialities that constitute it in the categorization of certain kinds of people; in this case, children and ‘savage’ adults are considered minor subjects and, therefore, available for objectification and universalization by western science. The binary markers of savage/civilized, ignorance/knowledge, emotions/reason, and body/mind, among others, structure the analysis and the conclusions. Even if similar in play activities, the ‘white’ western child becomes more complex and intellectual. The thought that ‘savage’ adults and children shared the same conceptual space allowed the equivalence and comparison between children and adults. The opposite of this equation would not be possible in this colonial matrix of power.
Which assumptions do I activate when I presuppose that childhood times are times of play and not of reason?
Which prejudices and/or romanticized views am I projecting on the figure of the child?
CM