Abstract

SANTILLAN, Laura. Anthropology of upbringing: the social production of “a responsible parent” in poor neighborhoods in the suburbs of Buenos Aires. Etnográfica [online]. 2009, vol.13, n.2, pp.265-289. ISSN 0873-6561.

The aim of this article is to analyze the social production of the “parental responsibility” in contexts of social inequality from an anthropological point of view. We will explore, based on ethnographic records, the practices and meanings related to the social production of a “responsible parent” in poor neighborhoods in the suburbs of Buenos Aires city, that go along with the changes produced in relevant spheres of social life. The hypothesis we maintain is that in contemporary contexts the social definitions regarding the paternal and maternal responsibilities include a wide range of social actors as well as complex appropriations of values typical of modernity, many of them related to the separation between the spheres of “public” and “private” life.

Keywords : parental responsibility; upbringing; education of children; public/private; everyday life; social inequality.

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