Between farm and children’s biblical… or police school. An ethnographic analysis on child care in Orán rural contexts (Salta, Argentina)

Abstract

The article analyzes from an anthropological perspective the social and cultural organization of child care in rural contexts from Oran (Salta, Argentine). This methodological theoretical perspective recovers feminist´s research on care and social studies on childhood, to explore the processes of childhood construction in rural contexts in Salta and proposes to think of children as active subjects in care organization. The ethnographic work was carried out in rural sectors with Creole and Ava-Guarani families, from Argentine and Bolivia. State interventions are insufficient to respond to the demands of child care in rural contexts, marked by labor informality. Children assume responsibilities in care tasks and have a greater degree of autonomy. Ethnographic perspective allows us to understand the wide acceptance of the children’s police school, as a space that allows defamiliarizing child care tasks.