children: The Americas called a bulla, a chain with a pouch containing protective amulets Boys became adults in a ceremony conducted at the age of 16, at which point they exchanged the toga praetexta for a simple white toga called the toga virilis Girls spent much of their time at home, learning female skills such as weaving and sewing They also went to school or studied with pedagogues, though female education was not considered as important as male education Girls, like boys, wore the bulla necklace; they stopped wearing it when they married They also wore the toga praetexta on special occasions Girls did not undergo a ceremony inducting them into adulthood They married at about the age of 18; younger girls certainly married, but it was often considered improper Both boys and girls played roles in Roman religion Children could hold priesthoods and were in fact desired for these positions because of their purity The young Julius Caesar (100 b.c.e.–44 b.c.e.) was appointed flamen dialis, chief priest of Jupiter, when he was about 13 years old Because the flamen dialis had to be married, Julius Caesar wed a young girl when he took office; she served as his female counterpart, the flaminia dialis Vestal virgins, the priestesses who cared for the sacred flame of the hearth goddess, Vesta, entered service at the age of seven or eight and spent the next 20 years or so performing their duties The Roman nobility especially valued their children, both boys and girls, as necessary players in maintaining the family’s status Boys were raised to uphold family honor Girls were taught from an early age that their duty was to marry whomever their fathers selected as husbands for them, with the understanding that this choice would be dictated by fi nancial and political needs and not by romantic inclination Despite this apparently callous attitude toward offspring, there is ample evidence that Roman parents loved their children and wanted them to enjoy their childhoods Ancient vases depict toys, and ancient writers wrote about children’s games Funeral inscriptions often mention children, and parents who lost children sometimes held elaborate funerals for them 197 set of puberty While men generally engaged in agricultural production, hunting, and other activities, women typically cared for children, prepared food, maintained the home, wove textiles, and in some cultures were responsible for ceramic production In South America the Paracas (ca 700 b.c.e.–200 c.e.) and Nazca (ca 1–700 c.e.) cultures interred many children in their burial grounds on the southern coast of Peru Twentieth-century excavations along the sandy desert coastline found the remains of children among the hundreds of mummy bundles buried in shallow shaft tombs The bodies, placed in a fetal position within a basket and wrapped in layer upon layer of cloth, generally show that the children experienced malnutrition or died from childhood diseases The children wore textiles sized to fit their small bodies, and some burials included figurines or toys in the layers of their bundle Archaeological evidence indicates that early cultures experienced a much higher infant mortality rate than is true today, and the average life expectancy for adults was 37 or 38 years old While few clues exist about childhood experience in North America, skeletal remains and artwork from Mesoamerica and South America indicate that many cultures practiced cranial deformation, compressing and shaping the skull of a newborn infant with boards or mats to achieve an aesthetically pleasing THE AMERICAS BY ANGELA HERREN Little information exists on the role of children in the ancient Americas In the past archaeological studies focused on adult roles in society; however, some recent scholarship addresses the social experience of children in the ancient period These studies rely on archaeological evidence and early forms of artwork that may represent infants and children Some scholars caution that the concept of childhood is a social construct Like their descendents, ancient Americans probably welcomed children into the world, training them early to perform tasks appropriate to their gender, but did not conceive of childhood as a distinct period in one’s life Rather, children gradually assumed the responsibilities of adulthood, probably marrying a few years after the on- Olmec figure of a baby (ceramic, cinnabar, and red ochre) 12th to ninth century b.c.e., Mexico (Copyright the Metropolitan Museum of Art)