Children’s socialization in the Lithuanian family: gender and religious identities

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to focus specifically on childhood socialization, although it deals with the issue of childhood’s relationship to later life. The paper bases its presentation on archival and ethnographic research materials endeavoring to reveal children socialization in the customs of Lithuanian families from the 20th to the early 21st century. The chief goal of my investigation is to analyze the phenomenon of female and male socialization in the traditional and contemporary Lithuanian culture. It is also meant to determine the religious displays of children and their religious identities. The religious consciousness of the folk plays an important role in the process of socialization of a child, i. e., of imbuing the child with culture. Religious upbringing for children during the first half of the 20th century was based on the religious experiences of the family and the rural community, i. e., folk teaching. A prayer spoken in common by the family played an important function in holding the family together and in forming a person’s religious identity. The common daily prayer along with the religious identity of family members, which had unified for several generations, began waning in the middle of 20th c. The devotion of children keep taking on new forms in today’s world, which is so affected by urbanization and modernization. Devotion is being formed and trained at events and festivals of a religious nature, youth days, prayer groups and pilgrimages.