(Neo) Zones of Violence: Reconstructing Empire on the Bodies of Militarized Youth

Abstract

When does childhood begin, and how and why does it end? The temporal boundaries for childhood and adolescence vary considerably across and within cultures, as well as across fields of study. Loosely defined, adolescence represents a complex, difficult, even challenging transition from child to adult status, accompanying a requirement for the accepted social behavior of a specific adult culture. However, a lack of consensus persists around two issues: (1) the precise duration of adolescence, whose onset cannot be determined simply on a physiological basis; and, (2) whether “youths” should be protected from certain activities or roles in their particular communities and sociocultural contexts. Is it permissible for a youth, however defined, to smoke, or to drink alcohol? Should children be recipients of formal or informal education? Under the conditions of armed conflict, is it acceptable for youths to experience the roles of military target or even active participant?

Childhood is not from birth to a certain age… Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies, nobody that matters, that is.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

When childhood dies, its corpses are called adults and they enter society, one of the politer names of hell.

Brian Aldis