Ghost Children: Delayed Personhood and Culture-specific Models of Infancy in Western Anatolia.

The article "Ghost Children: Delayed Personhood and Culturally Specific Models of Childhood in Western Anatolia" examines the burial practices of infants and children in Anatolia during the seventh to third millennia BC. It is noted that infants and children were not considered fully human beings in most societies until a certain age. The authors argue for the construction of culturally specific models of infancy based on archaeological evidence in Anatolia and beyond. It is emphasized that the burial of children and infants in settlements during the Anatolian Chalcolithic and early Bronze Age is not "deviant burial," but rather a form of "delayed personhood." The burial practices of children and infants within settlements were widespread in Anatolia during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Age. [Extracted from the article]