Abstract
This study aims to clarify the concept of “child” in Bangladesh rural society by focusing on the process by which the children gradually change their behavior, relationship ties and social standing within their community as they grow. Within this, the undeniable connection between the society's image of the child' and the children's own daily practices caught my attention, leading me to the new concept of the “child-sphere”.
In Jamalpur, where I had conducted my fieldwork, the people have multiple words that mean “child” and differentiate them according to the stages of a child's growth. Moreover, children are often assumed to bhuji-nai (“simply not understand”) and are consequently excused or forgiven for not observing social manners and rules. On the other hand when we focus on the children's practices, their behavior or levels of understanding can be described to separate into stages that roughly correlate to the adults' expectations. Their freedom to bhuji-nai decreases in accordance with an increase in the number of expected roles they must fulfill for their families.
Thus, the children establish behavioral patterns within their freedom from social rules allowed by their bhuji-nai, and as they learn social regulations through their interactions with people in their community, their “child-sphere” gradually contracts. Eventually the “child-sphere” disappears for the child, which is effectively the end of their “days of child.”
