Pain with punishment and the negotiation of childhood: an ethnographic analysis of children's rights processes in Maasailand

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Periodical article

Title:	Pain with punishment and the negotiation of childhood: an ethnographic analysis of children's rights processes in Maasailand
Author:	Archambault, Caroline
Year:	2009
Periodical:	Africa: Journal of the International African Institute
Volume:	79
Issue:	2
Pages:	282-302
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Kenya
Subjects:	Maasai children's rights corporal punishment
External links:	https://doi.org/10.3366/E0001972009000722 http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/africa_the_journal_of_the_international_african_institute/v079/79.2.archambault.pdf
Abstract:	Children's rights activists contend that corporal punishment in schools is a form of child abuse which hinders children's learning. Yet most parents and teachers in Maasailand, Kenya, consider corporal punishment, if properly employed, to be one of the most effective ways to instil the discipline necessary for children to learn and grow well. Responding to calls for a more empirical anthropology of rights, this article provides an ethnographic analysis of the practice of corporal punishment among the Maasai in domestic and primary school settings, exploring its pedagogical, developmental and social significance, and illuminating its role in the production and negotiation of identities and personhood. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract]