Welcome to Part 2 of Volume 9 of Childhood in the Past, the journal of the Society for the Study of Childhood in the Past (SSCIP). This issue comprises three research papers and five book reviews. In the first of the research papers Janet E. Kay explores the nature of the material culture recovered from children’s burials in Britain’s long fifth century (AD 350–550). Her study of the age-related use of Roman objects as grave goods during this time is highly informative, providing insights both in relation to why these objects were included in burials and, more broadly, how children were viewed by their communities. She observes that, while adults were buried with both contemporary early medieval and Roman items, child burials usually only contained the latter. She proposes that, as the chronological distance to the Roman past lengthened, the graves of children were used to commemorate or construct connections to this past. The paper of Simon Mays investigates the extent to which children feature, and the nature of their roles, in medieval ghost stories. He reviews sixty stories dating from the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries AD derived from north-western Europe, the majority of which were recorded by ecclesiastical writers for use as exempla – short stories used to warn against the dangers of sin. He found that only three stories made reference to ghostly children, whereas the tales about revenants (more malevolent beings) only focused on adults. He concludes that the role of children in the ghost stories differs from that of adults. Their use to illustrate the consequences of minor sin or the major sin of an associated adult, such as a failure to baptize an infant, was still compatible with the idealized medieval concept of childhood innocence and piety. Jonny Geber’s study serves as a reminder of the horrors of the Great Famine of mid-nineteenth-century Ireland. He starts with the astute observation that relatively little research has been undertaken on the experiences of children during the famine – even though they comprised the majority of those who died. His biocultural study of a famine population recovered from a mass burial at Kilkenny Workhouse combines skeletal evidence with data derived from the historical records of the institution. He discusses the evidence for physiological stress and reminds us that victims of such a disaster would undoubtedly also have suffered from major psychological stress. The workhouse system was intended as a vehicle of social reform, but the historical records are suggestive that workhouse Guardians felt a moral responsibility for the children in their care. Geber observes that, while many children died as a result of the Famine, a large number would have been saved because of the workhouse. The journal ends with a collection of book reviews edited by Simon Mays. In addition to a review of the fourth SSCIP monograph – Children, Spaces and Identity, edited by Margarita Sánchez Romero, Eva Alarcón García and Gonzalo Aranda Jiménez – the reviews cover books on the topics of childhood in ancient Attica; childhood and nineteenth-century American theatre; mid-nineteenthto early-twentieth-century fatherhood and the British working class; and ethics and children’s literature. As always, sincere thanks are due to all of the contributors and reviewers whose support has enabled our journal to move successfully towards its tenth birthday.

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社论

欢迎阅读过去童年研究协会 (SSCIP) 的期刊《过去的童年》第 9 卷第 2 部分。本期包括三篇研究论文和五篇书评。在第一篇研究论文中，Janet E. Kay 探讨了在英国漫长的 5 世纪（公元 350-550 年）从儿童墓葬中恢复的物质文化的性质。她对这段时期罗马物品与年龄相关的使用作为墓葬物品的研究具有很高的信息量，提供了关于为什么这些物品被包括在墓葬中的见解，以及更广泛地，他们的社区如何看待儿童。她观察到，虽然成年人与当代早期中世纪和罗马物品一起被埋葬，但儿童墓葬通常只包含后者。她提出，随着与罗马过去的年代距离拉长，儿童的坟墓被用来纪念或建立与过去的联系。西蒙·梅斯 (Simon Mays) 的论文调查了中世纪鬼故事中儿童的特征以及他们角色的性质。他回顾了公元 11 世纪到 15 世纪源自西北欧的 60 个故事，其中大部分是由教会作家记录的，用作范例——用来警告罪恶危险的短篇小说。他发现只有三个故事提到了幽灵般的孩子，而关于亡灵（更恶毒的生物）的故事只关注成年人。他的结论是，儿童在鬼故事中的角色与成人不同。它们用于说明小罪或相关成年人的大罪的后果，例如未能为婴儿施洗，仍然符合中世纪理想化的童年纯真和虔诚的概念。Jonny Geber 的研究提醒人们注意 19 世纪中叶爱尔兰大饥荒的恐怖。他首先敏锐地观察到，对饥荒期间儿童经历的研究相对较少——尽管他们占了死亡人数的大多数。他对从基尔肯尼济贫院大规模埋葬的饥荒人口进行的生物文化研究结合了骨骼证据和该机构历史记录中的数据。他讨论了生理压力的证据，并提醒我们，这种灾难的受害者无疑也会遭受重大的心理压力。济贫院制度旨在作为社会改革的工具，但历史记录表明，济贫院监护人对他们照顾的孩子负有道德责任。Geber 观察到，虽然许多儿童因饥荒而死亡，但由于济贫院，大量儿童本可以得救。该期刊以西蒙·梅斯 (Simon Mays) 编辑的一系列书评结尾。除了对由 Margarita Sánchez Romero、Eva Alarcón García 和 Gonzalo Aranda Jiménez 编辑的第四本 SSCIP 专着《儿童、空间和身份》的评论外，评论还涵盖了有关古代阿提卡童年主题的书籍；童年和十九世纪的美国戏剧；十九世纪中叶至二十世纪初的父亲和英国工人阶级；以及伦理和儿童文学。一如既往，